Philip L. Defliese, former AICPA chairman and Coopers & Lybrand head.

Philip L. Defliese, 1974-75 chairman of the American Institute of CPAs and former chairman and managing partner of Coopers & Lybrand, died in October at the age of 82. Defliese was long at the center of accounting standards: In the early 1970s, he was chairman of the AICPA Accounting Principles Board—the Financial Accounting Standards Board’s immediate predecessor—a position he called “the most thankless job in the entire accounting profession.” He was a founding member of the Governmental Accounting Standards Board and also served on the AICPA auditing standards board. After his retirement from C&L, he was a professor at Columbia University’s graduate school of business.

Defliese received the AICPA Gold Medal for Distinguished Service to the Profession in 1972 and was inducted into the Accounting Hall of Fame in 1987. In 1995, the Public Oversight Board presented him with the John J. McCloy Award. Current C&L Chairman Nicholas G. Moore said Defliese “had made tremendous contributions to the accounting profession and had a major impact on moving the firm forward.”