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Coleman D. Ross

Dr. Harold Q. Langenderfer Endowed Distinguished Professorship in Accounting

The Dr. Harold Q. Langenderfer Endowed Distinguished Professorship in Accounting was established in 2015 by Coleman D. Ross, BSBA '65, to provide support and recognition to a top faculty member in UNC's Kenan-Flagler Business School accounting department. Dr. Langenderfer was one of the esteemed accounting professors during Coleman's time at the Business School and was admired by his students over his 40 years at the school.

In addition to being a teacher and mentor to thousands of UNC students, Dr. Langenderfer was also an influence on other national accounting educators and practitioners. Dr. Langenderfer served the accounting profession as president of both the American Accounting Association and the North Carolina Association of CPAs, as a member of the American Institute of CPAs Governing Council, and on the North Carolina State Board of CPA Examiners.

Dr. Langenderfer was the author or co-author of several books on financial accounting, federal income taxation, management accounting, professional ethics, and the history of accounting education that have been widely used by colleges and universities throughout the U.S. In addition, he also published numerous articles in accounting and ethics journals.

At Dr. Langenderfer’s retirement in 1993, his longtime colleague, Dr. Rollie Tillman said:

I can’t let your retirement from the active faculty occur without some personal note. I just don’t know what note to play.

• There is the note of gratefulness, for your years of service to UNC, to the business school and its constituencies, and to those of us on the faculty always bugging you about tax issues.
• There is the note of pride in your many accomplishments and the national honors you won. Your contacts in the professional accounting world – and their uniform respect for you – helped build an international reputation in accounting.
• There is a note of happiness in having a collegial friend, who always had time for school, family, church, and community obligations. The business school will never be the same.

Well there: three notes make a chord. And given your disposition and kindly spirit, it is a Major Chord. Future generations will have to accept the fact that they came too late; you’re a lost chord for them. But the echo will linger forever.

Professorship recipients will exemplify Dr. Langenderfer's traits, leadership, and characteristics and be a leader in their field of study or research. Recipients of the professorship will be called “Distinguished Professor” if a full professor, “Distinguished Scholar” if an associate professor, and “Distinguished Fellow” if an assistant professor.”

The following about the professorship and the honoree is excerpted from an article, Coleman Ross: Investing in Knowledge, in the business school’s January 2017 News & Impact newsletter:

The legacy of beloved accounting professor Harold Langenderfer will live on at Kenan-Flagler thanks to the generosity of his former student, Coleman Ross (BSBA ’65).

Ross established the Dr. Harold Q. Langenderfer Distinguished Professorship of Accounting in honor of the late professor with a goal of raising $1 million in endowed funds.

Dr. Langenderfer was a student favorite during his 40 years of service to UNC. An Ohio native, he served in the U.S. Army from 1943 to 1945 in the U.S. and Okinawa. He received an undergraduate degree from Miami University, a master’s degree from Northwestern University and a doctorate from Indiana University. In 1953, he accepted a position at UNC where he rose to full professor as the KPMG Chaired Professor of Accounting, retiring in 1993. He died at age 80 in 2006.

When Ross was a student at Carolina, he was initially reluctant to study accounting as his father and brother Guy (BSBA ’55) were both accountants and he wanted to establish his own separate identity. However, he had a natural aptitude for accounting and quickly discovered that accounting courses – the dread of many of his classmates – were well suited for him. Ross decided to accept his destiny and with two greats of Carolina’s accounting faculty as his instructors – Harold Langenderfer and Ike Reynolds – flourished with a new sense of purpose and the knowledge to succeed in his career.

“I didn’t fully realize how much I had benefitted from my accounting education at Carolina until after I had started my career with Price Waterhouse [now PricewaterhouseCoopers],” said Ross. “Later, I had the opportunity to know Dr. Langenderfer personally. Not only was he a teacher and mentor to thousands of UNC students, he also contributed to the accounting profession in North Carolina and nationally. He was recognized by the AICPA with its Distinguished Achievement in Accounting Education Award in recognition of his excellence in teaching and his national prominence in the accounting profession, and by the American Accounting Association with its Accounting Exemplar Award for his notable contributions to professionalism and ethics in accounting education.”

Ross’s career has spanned more than 50 years. He provided accounting services for financial services clients at PricewaterhouseCoopers for 34 years and was the national leader of PW’s insurance practice. Following his retirement, he served as chief financial officer for two New York Stock Exchange-listed insurers. Over the past 13 years, he has been an independent director of six insurance and insurance-related companies.

In addition to Ross’s initial gift to establish the Langenderfer professorship – which will provide support and recognition to a top faculty member in the School’s accounting program – he pledged additional funds as a matching gift to challenge other Kenan-Flagler alumni and friends to join him in honoring Dr. Langenderfer by also giving to the fund.

Once the goal is met, the fund will be eligible to receive a one-for-two match from the State of North Carolina, bringing the total value of the fund to $1 million.

“Coleman's generous gift has made this professorship possible, and with the generosity of other alumni, we hope that the gift will provide funds for another faculty member to touch students’ lives for many years to come,” said Joan Langenderfer, Harold’s wife. “The fact that Harold is being honored in this way is incredibly meaningful to me and my entire family.”

“Harold was a great Tar Heel, and I was fortunate to know him as both my teacher and my colleague,” said Dean Doug Shackelford (BSBA ’80). “As a longtime accounting faculty member here, I greatly appreciate Coleman’s generosity – and that of our alumni and friends – which will enable the legacy of one of our most influential professors to strengthen accounting education at Kenan-Flagler.”

Over the years, Ross and his wife, Carol (BA ’64), have supported the University and Kenan-Flagler in a variety of ways, including the creation of the Coleman D. Ross Master of Accounting Fellowship and the Carol Morde Ross Endowed Distinguished Professorship in Psychiatric-Mental Health Nursing. In 2013, Ross received Kenan-Flagler’s Master of Accounting Alumni Merit Award.

In 2019 with the fundraising goal having been met, Jeffrey Hoopes was announced as the first recipient of the Langenderfer Professorship and was named the Harold Q. Langenderfer Distinguished Scholar of Accounting.

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