Nicholas Dopuch, a transformational figure in the world of accounting research and professor emeritus at Olin Business School at Washington University in St. Louis, died Sunday, Feb. 4, 2018. He was 88.
“I owe my career to him,” said Mahendra Gupta, the Geraldine J. and Robert L. Virgil Professor of Accounting and Olin’s former dean. “He was a mentor, a father figure and he was a great guide, not just to me, but to every PhD student, faculty member and others at the school.”
Dopuch was born in St. Louis in 1929, the son of Serbian parents who emigrated to the United States as teenagers. After high school, he worked for Anheuser-Busch and attended classes part-time at Washington University, then completed a tour of duty with the U.S. Air Force.
Dopuch earned a bachelor’s degree in 1957 from Indiana State University, and master’s and doctoral degrees from the University of Illinois in 1959 and 1961, respectively.
Before joining the faculty at Washington University in 1983, he taught at the universities of Chicago, Illinois and Indiana.
At the University of Chicago, he edited the influential Journal of Accounting Research, and he continued as its editor or co-editor until 2001.
Dopuch became Washington University’s first Hubert C. and Dorothy R. Moog Professor of Finance and directed Olin’s PhD program from 1986 through 2003.
Dopuch was inducted into the Accounting Hall of Fame. Among other honors, he received the Olin Dean’s Medal in 1995 and a Distinguished Faculty Award in 2004.
Dopuch was preceded in death by his wife, Barbara, and two sons, Michael and Nicholas. A Service of Witness to the Resurrection will be held 11 a.m. Feb. 12 at Glendale Presbyterian Church, 500 N. Sappington Road. Read the full obituary on the Olin website.
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