Fifty years’ time can tarnish certain memories and brighten others. Stan Ross Department Distinguished Lecturer in Accountancy Norman Strauss (’63, MBA ’69) offers this story as among his favorite Baruch College/City College Downtown memories from a lifetime of engagement with his alma mater that continues to this day:
I took a graduate class—much like the Contemporary Topics in Accountancy class I teach now—that was taught by the “famous” Professor Abraham Brilloff [inset photo left]. I arrived a bit late for the first class. He asked who I was, and I said ‘Strauss.’ He instructed me to sit in the first row center and then turned to the blackboard. I didn’t want to sit in the front, so I went farther back and someone else came in and sat in that seat. Then I listened to Professor Brilloff lecture, and I was overwhelmed by how brilliantly he spoke about accounting, including his criticisms of the profession. After a while, the student who sat in “my seat” leaped up, objecting to what Professor Brilloff was saying. To me, this student sounded like a genius. Well, Professor Brilloff was also impressed and said, “That was brilliant, Strauss!” The next class I arrived early and took that seat. For the rest of the semester, Professor Brilloff kept smiling at me, and I did well in the class. Sometimes it’s nice to be lucky.”
Now himself in the graduate classroom teaching accountancy courses, since he retired from Ernst & Young in 2001, Strauss tries to conduct a memorable and at-times fun-loving class. “Every semester I tell my students that I’m an alumnus and am giving back by teaching. I also tell them that I went to Baruch so long ago that we only had debits then, no credits! But, unfortunately, the students look at me as if my story is true!” laughs the professor, whose serious goal for his students is to understand the accounting standard setting process.
Strauss is also among the leadership-level donors to Baruch as a member of the College’s 17 Lex Society.
—Diane Harrigan
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