Maurice Stans and Michael Chetkovich, past AICPA leaders.

Two Former AICPA Chiefs

A top government accountant and a Big 8 managing partner with long records of service to the Institute died in April.

Maurice Stans was 19541955 president (the position now called chairman) of the American Institute of Accountantswhich later became the AICPA. Although he never finished college, he became executive partner of Alexander Grant & Co. (now Grant Thornton) and a government consultant. President Eisenhower made him budget director in 1958. President Nixon appointed him secretary of commerce in his first term, and, during the presidents reelection campaign, Stans proved himself a leading Republican fundraiser. However, Watergate tainted his reputation even though he was acquitted of serious perjury charges and pleaded guilty only to nonwillful violations of campaign financing laws. He defended himself as unfairly tarnished in his 1995 autobiography, One of the Presidents Men.

Stans won the Gold Medal for Distinguished Service to the Profession in 1954 and was inducted into the Accounting Hall of Fame in 1960.

Michael N. Chetkovich spent most of his career in public accounting, becoming managing partner of Haskins & Sells (now Deloitte & Touche). He was elected 19761977 chairman of the Institute and also served as 19651966 vice president of the California Society of CPAs. In 1972 he was U.S. representative to the International Coordination Committee for the Accounting Profession. Chetkovich won the Gold Medal in 1982.