Print Friendly | Email a Friend

Cover Story: Lifetime Achievement Awards
Beyond Numbers · June 2001

by Michelle McRae, Editor

What lies behind us and what lies before us are tiny matters compared to what lies within us. Ralph Waldo Emerson

It’s fitting that we follow last month’s cover story on balanced living with this month’s tribute to the Institute’s first four recipients of the Lifetime Achievement Award. They are distinguished not only by their professional achievements, but also by the breadth and depth of their experience, accomplishments, and contribution to the profession and the community. What becomes an ICABC legend most? Read on and find out.

Kenneth M. Dye, FCA

As Auditor General of Canada for ten years, Kenneth M. Dye, FCA, took public sector auditing to new levels of technology and accountability. He was the first president and CEO of the Workers’ Compensation Board of BC, and was a partner in the predecessor firm of Grant Thornton in Vancouver for 15 years. Dye is one of only four Canadian CAs to hold three FCA designations.

Chronology

• 1962: Became a CA.
• 1966: Became a partner with his articling firm Frederick Field and Co, CAs (today Grant Thornton LLP).
• Was elected to the ICABC Council from 1967 to 1980 with one year out in 1975 to try to merge the accounting profession in BC. Also served on numerous Institute committees.
• 1967-71: Chaired the ICABC’s Education Committee.
• 1969 -72: Served on the CICA’s Inter-Provincial Education Committee and chaired it for three years.
• 1970s: Volunteered as manager of the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra’s fund-raising campaign.
• 1971: Was a member of the first graduating class of the Executive Masters in Business Administration program at SFU. (He has since received honorary degrees from four Canadian universities—including an honorary doctorate from SFU.)
• 1975: Became an FCA in BC.
• 1979-80: ICABC president.
• 1981-91: Left public practice to take on 10-year role as Auditor General of Canada.
• 1982: FCA in Ontario.
• 1984: FCA in Quebec.
• 1986: Received the Certified Internal Auditor designation, held to this day.
• 1991: Served for two years as first president and CEO of the Workers’ Compensation Board of BC.
• 1993-Present: Joined Cowater International Inc in Ottawa. Currently senior VP, he works with governments around the world to improve accountability, transparency, and good governance, and specializes in the strengthening of Supreme Audit Institutions and Ministries of Finance.

Profession: Served as a member of the CICA’s Board of Governors, member of the IFAC Council, first chairman of the IFAC Public Sector Committee, member of the Institute’s FCA Nominating and President’s Advisory committees, the Memorial Scholarship Fund, and the Professional Conduct Enquiry Board. Also served as Vice Chairman of the Canadian Comprehensive Auditing Foundation. Was Chairman of the United Nations Panel of External Auditors and auditor of the International Atomic Energy Agency. Was also Governor of the International Organization of Supreme Audit Institutions.

Community: Served as treasurer, then VP, of the National Council of Scouts Canada and Chairman of its Finance Committee, as well as Chairman of the Audit Committee of the Anglican Diocese of Ottawa. Past Rector’s Warden and Peoples Warden and parish council member in several Anglican parishes. Was also a Cub Master and Scoutmaster.

Dye says that he was astonished to be chosen for the award, especially amongst the other recipients, each of whom he’s admired for many years. He feels especially indebted to the professional example set for him by Dennis Culver, FCA, with whom he worked closely on many occasions. Dye gives much of the credit for the award to his wife Frances and their family, as well as to his former partners and his colleagues at the OAG. He adds: “My CA designation has opened doors that I never could have dreamt about when I graduated.”

A. D. Peter Stanley, FCA

Among his many achievements, A. D. Peter Stanley, FCA, has headed up numerous investigations with the governments of Canada and British Columbia, and was president of the BC-Yukon Division of the Canadian Red Cross.

Chronology

• 1935: Began articling with McDonald, Currie & Company in Montreal.
• WWII interrupted his career. Not content with desk duty, he made his way into active service. Rising from Ordinary Seaman to the rank of Lieutenant Commander, he spent much of the war in active duty in the Pacific, Normandy, and on the North Atlantic’s harsh Murmansk Run, for which he was decorated by the Soviet Union.
• 1951: Became a CA and moved to Vancouver to head up McDonald, Currie & Company’s local office.
• 1957: ICABC President.
• 1957: Was appointed by the Attorney General of BC to investigate a scandal involving the Minister of Lands and Forests. His report helped lead to the conviction of the Minister, who was sentenced to six months in jail after one of the longest criminal trials in Canadian history. Jack Webster, who covered the trial, christened him the “Founder of Forensic Accounting.”
• Subsequently headed up a number of investigative assignments with the RCMP and other government agencies.
• Developed a speciality in business turn-arounds and insolvency.
• 1958: Became licensed as a trustee in Bankruptcy.
• 1960: Became an FCA in BC.
• 1965: Made a study of commercial water transportation in the Mackenzie River System for the federal government.
• 1968: Handled the receivership of the Commonwealth Group of Companies.
• 1973: Became the first Chair of the BC Development Corporation, and one of the first two public governors of the Vancouver Stock Exchange.
• 1951-73: As partner-in-charge of McDonald, Currie & Company’s Vancouver office, he oversaw the company’s dramatic growth, served on the firm’s management committees, and was involved in the formation and development of the international firm Coopers & Lybrand.
• At retirement, was partner in charge of Coopers & Lybrand’s western offices.

ICABC: Served as President, Council member, member of the Professional Conduct Enquiry Committee, and a trustee of the Benevolent Fund.

Community: Served as a director of public companies such as the National Westminster Bank of Canada, Crestbrook Forest Industries, and Selkirk Communications. Is a Life Member of the Vancouver Art Gallery and former Governor of the Vancouver School of Theology.

Stanley admits that he was stunned to be chosen for the award, believing as he does that there are several others whose contributions were more extensive than his own. He adds with a laugh: “I can only gather that the system must be flawed and needs to be fixed!”

Married to his wife Margaret, with whom he has three daughters and three grandchildren, Stanley still maintains an office with his old firm and comes in regularly.

Perhaps his greatest achievement is what has been described by others as “the creation and maintenance of a dynamic, happy, collegial environment within his firm, which was the foundation of its success in Vancouver.” In response, Stanley offers that he’d be more than pleased if that were the only thing said of him in this article.

Dennis F. Culver, FCA

In addition to a tireless commitment to the profession, the Institute, Simon Fraser University, and the community, Dennis F. Culver, FCA, raised nine children with his wife Eleanor. One of the family’s 11-member cross-Canada motor trips even made them the subject of a CBC-TV documentary in 1963; with children ranging in age from 2 to 12 years, the family travelled across Canada in five days. Preparation for a 1967 road-trip to the Montreal Expo was also reported extensively by Chatelaine magazine.

Chronology

• 1941-42: Articled with Peat Marwick Mitchell & Co, CAs (now KPMG LLP).
• 1942-46: Served in the army during WWII—in the European Theatre with the Calgary Highlanders and the Canadian Scottish Regiments.
• 1946-50: Returned to Peat Marwick Mitchell & Co.
• 1952: Became a CA.
• 1950-54: Worked as CFO for Vivian Diesels & Munitions Ltd. and Vivian Engine Works Ltd. in Vancouver before founding Culver & Co. CAs.
• 1970-71: MBA Thesis on “Amateur Winemaking in BC” still regarded as the only definitive study of the extent and economic impact of such activities. (He is also an award-winning winemaker.)
• 1971: Graduated from the Executive MBA program at SFU as a charter student.
• 1972: Became an FCA in BC.
• 1977-78: ICABC president.
• 1977: joined the ICAYT
• 1978: joined the ICANWT
• 1981-82: CICA president.
• 1984: Received SFU Chancellor’s Distinguished Service Award.
• 1985: Received SFU Outstanding Alumni Award.
• 1986: Successfully led the Vancouver Symphony Society through a time of extreme financial distress as president.
• 1987: Received Certificate of Merit from the CICA.
• 1991: Received the Royal Order of Eagles and Wharf Rats from the citizens of Eagle Island.
• 1992: Honorary doctorate from SFU. 1994: Executive MBA Association Distinguished Service Award from SFU.

ICABC: Served on many committees: Public Practice, Professional Development, Student Recruitment, Public Relations, Finance, University Liaison, Discipline, as well as on the Professional Conduct Enquiry Board, the Computer Task Force, and the AICPA/NASBA and Washington CPA Reciprocity Task Forces. Chaired the Group Insurance Committee, and was instrumental in the formation of the Western CA Services Association. He then chaired WCASA for its first few years.

Also worked on the Accounting Development Fund, which was created to provide funds to help emphasize accounting training at BC universities, and signed the ensuing contract with Peter Lustig, Dean of UBC’s Faculty of Business.

CICA: Served on the Board of Governors, tax panels, a task force to review standard setting procedures, and on the following committees: one for national management consulting, Inter-American Accounting Organizing, and one set up to study the reorganization of the Board of Governors.

Community: At SFU, served as inaugural chair and continuing member of the Business Administration Faculty’s Advisory Board, and as a Scholarship and Endowment Fund initiator and donor. Worked with organizations such as the Child Care Centre/Camp Alexandra setting standards for day-care, and with other organizations in areas ranging from family services to the arts. Also chaired the Residents/Rate Payers’ Committees on both Eagle Island & Thetis Island.

A long-time colleague of both Stanley and Derek R. Lukin Johnston, FCA, he also remembers fondly the experience of entering the first Executive MBA Program at SFU (and, for that matter, in Canada) with Dye. Culver says he finds it very gratifying to have been chosen as a lifetime achiever, adding: “To share that position with these three particular members of my profession greatly enhances the feeling.”

Derek R. Lukin Johnston, FCA

A pillar of the profession and the community, Derek R. Lukin Johnston, FCA, is also a recipient of the Canadian government’s Centennial (1967) and Queen’s Silver Anniversary (1977) Medals for “service to the nation.” His professional achievements are matched by a passion for literature and languages; he has written numerous articles for national and provincial CA publications, including a serious piece on Charles Lamb, Accountant, and a humorous one entitled “Was Shakespeare an Ac-countant?”

Chronology

• 1913: Born in Duncan, BC.
• Educated in BC and England.
• 1931: Earned a diploma in French at the University of Geneva; also studied Spanish and German. Then returned to the UK and spent the next seven years with Thomson McLintock & Co., the London office of a large Scottish firm.
• 1937: Passed final exam as a Scots CA.
• 1938: Returned to Vancouver and joined Price Waterhouse’s Vancouver office.
• 1941-45: During WWII, served in the Royal Canadian Naval Volunteer Reserve. His ship was torpedoed in the North Atlantic, and he was rescued by HMS Narcissus while watching the Free French Navy corvette Aconit sink the U-boat responsible. (In later years, he met two of the U-boat survivors and was also elected an Honorary Member of the Aconit Veterans’ Association.)
• 1947: Joined ICABC.
• 1948: Became a partner with Price Waterhouse (today PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP), working in audit practice.
• 1954-55: ICABC President.
• 1957: Became an FCA in BC.
• 1962: Became the first permanent delegate of Canada to the Interamerican Accounting Association (IAA).
• 1964-65: CICA President.
• 1973: Retired from Price Waterhouse as senior partner, Vancouver office.
• 1977: Brought the 12th Conference of the IAA to Canada for the first time (held in Vancouver). Was presented with the Carmen Carvalho Medal of Honour of the Institute of Arts and Science of Brazil.
• 1979: Was elected a Contador Benemérito de las Américas (Accountant Emeritus of the Americas) at the Panama Conference of the IAA.

ICABC: Served on the Education, Student Recruitment, and Professional Conduct Enquiry Committees, as well as on the Memorial Scholarship Fund.

Community: Includes being president of the Men’s Canadian Club of Vancouver (1971-72), a member of the Board of Governors of The Leon and Thea Koerner Foundation (1954-81), and Chairman of the Vancouver Public Library Board (1962-67). Is currently Governor Emeritus of the Vancouver Public Library Trust.

Johnston is truly grateful to have been honoured, and in such distinguished company. The award has given him and his family great pleasure. He offers: “I think I would prize such an honour above any other, because it is conferred by one’s professional colleagues who know what one has done better than anyone else outside one’s own family.”

In a December 1955 article for the ICABC News Letter entitled “Some Notes on our Professional Heritage,” Johnston traces the roots of accounting from antiquity through to the present. He concludes:

“For the achievement of the past half-century, in which we may justly take pride, we owe a debt of gratitude to many past and present members whose efforts and imagination have made the [ICABC] what it is today. The only currency for settlement of this debt is constant endeavour to maintain and improve our professional and technical standards.”

Another half-century later, it’s clear that Dye, Stanley, Culver, and Johnston have each helped to settle this former “debt of gratitude.” And, in turn, they’ve created a legacy of their own, to which current and future generations of CAs are now themselves indebted.

As you may imagine, each of these Lifetime Achievement Award winners has a wealth of knowledge and experience vast enough to warrant his own memoirs. What we’ve offered here are merely highlights. We hope these highlights inspire you as much as they have us—after all, when you look back, what will you want your “chronology” to be?

Many thanks to each of the four recipients for handling our hurried requests for photographs, verification, and pithy commentary with such aplomb. And many thanks to Deborah Folka, who conducted the preliminary research that formed the basis for this article. She also contributed this month’s Feature Story on the Institute’s Honorary CA Award winners, and the tribute to Ritchie McCloy, FCA.