XU Accounting Prof Bill Smith passes away

[Pablo's Brother]

What a memorable teacher! Impacted many lives at Xavier and was a great man. If you had him for Accounting, you never forgot him. My favorite quote from Mr. Smith was: "when I want to have some fun I go to UDF and get myself a malt!"

http://news.cincinnati.com/article/AB/20090812/NEWS0104/908130323/

I still hate accounting though.

[Frambo]

I had Bill for freshman accounting and then officiated pee-wee and CYO football with him for a few years. He was a good guy, with a no-nonsense style. My main memory is when there was ANY scoreboard problem, Bill would leap at the chance, take care of the clock on the field....and we would be done in 45 minutes - no more, no less. Sorry to see him go!

[xnatic03]

I grew up around Deer Park and knew Smitty pretty well. I had him for accounting sophomore year and knew him through various refereeing/umpiring experiences. He also knew my grandfather (who passed away in 1956) and my uncles. He umpired our softball games a few years ago as well. Sad to see that he has passed.

[GoMuskies]

I was an accounting major but never actually had him for an accounting class. I met him a few times, though, and he was definitely someone you would not forget. Seemed like a great guy.

[MD Muskie]

i had him in 2001, my sophomore year, as well. While most of my memories of him are of being brash, which was mainly because he knew what he was teaching and most of us didn't, my main memory of him was that he was my teacher that didn't excuse class on the day after 9/11. Most of the teachers would say take the day off and reflect on what has happened, while Bill said i am not changing my ways, We are having class. At the time i was thinking what the hell, but as time has moved on i see where he was coming from. His belief was I am not changing my ways because of those terrorist. I am not going to let them win by stopping what i am doing. I respect that now, wish i did back in 2001. Xavier has lost a great teacher. RIP in Bill Smith.

[Cheesehead]

He also reffed CYO basketball games up until just recently. I knew he was getting old when he never crossed over the half-court line. He was always very pleasant but I never had him as a teacher.

[Olsingledigit]

As a freshman in 1963 I was pretty sure that I wanted to be an accounting major, but having Bill in class cemented my decision. He actually made accounting fun and interesting (a near impossible task). I have spent my entire career as a CPA (40+ years now) and I owe my passion for what I do to both Bill Smith and to the great Jesuits. Bill was a special teacher.

Some years ago X asked me to write a testimonial for the XU Magazine about a teacher who made a difference in my life. I wrote the article about Bill Smith. He did not know it was coming until he read it in the magazine. He got in touch with me and in typical Bill style he was aghast that someone actually believed he had made a difference in their life and would take the time to write about it.

He was a great teacher and part of what has made Xavier a great school. Xavier shall miss him and I shall miss him. RIP, Bill. Shake those acconting classes up in heaven, will you?

[Snipe]

Bill Smith was awesome. I had him as a frosh. You could tell he was a f'in old school classic.

I still remember him arguing for cash discounts whenever you use a credit card. It makes sense. If stores or gas stations are going to give a 3% cut to Visa they might as well extend that discount to you by giving them cash. You are doing them a favor and lowering transaction costs.

What a classic man. Sadly many teachers are forgettable, but I couldn't imagine anyone forgetting him.

[hipsterdoofus]

I can't tell you the number of free lunch passes to the University Center cafe I gave him when I was in school. I was fortunate enough to drive him to some baskeball games when he refereed. Class Act.

No mention of his work with Operation Youth which he held every summer on campus.

Great teacher.

[Muskie73]

This definitely hurts. Had Mr Smith for cost accounting my junior year. I remember the crew cut and his ongoing discussion of widgets in the factory system. Used to occasionally reminisce about his days at Xavier after the Korean War in class. In contrast to the times (early 70's) his stories gave us a window into a Xavier we otherwise would never have known.

Condolences to his family.

[xudash]

This definitely hurts. Had Mr Smith for cost accounting my junior year. I remember the crew cut and his ongoing discussion of widgets in the factory system. Used to occasionally reminisce about his days at Xavier after the Korean War in class. In contrast to the times (early 70's) his stories gave us a window into a Xavier we otherwise would never have known.

Condolences to his family.

Damn, this makes me sad. What a great professor. At least somebody finally mentioned his crew cut.

He was a man who was confident in where he stood and who lived his life - I believe - exactly the way he wanted to live it. I had him for cost accounting Junior year as well, but he also mentored me, during graduate school when I was on scholarship as a GA, teaching Principals classes.

Xavier was and remains special because of people like Mr. Smith. Ah, I can see those widgets moving through production as I type this. You know the guy was a great professor when you're fully capable of pulling up your internal YouTube and you can still visualize him at the podium or the chalk board.

[Dblue]

Smitty was something special. I ate lunch with him several times a week for a couple of semesters. I know alot of students didn't care for his style, but he really did care for his students. It was just his hard ass style of teaching wasn't easy.

[X-band '01]

I had Prof. Smith for Financial and Managerial Accounting (and yes, I'm an accounting major as well); I also had him as my academic advisor as well. As long as you put in the work in his cllasses, it was a great experience learning the material and some of the real-world examples mentioned above.

It's too bad - he was truly one-of-a-kind as far as the accounting professors that I can remember

[X-band '01]

If stores or gas stations are going to give a 3% cut to Visa they might as well extend that discount to you by giving them cash. You are doing them a favor and lowering transaction costs.


American Express perhaps, but any merchant services provider worth their salt will have Visa and Mastercard just below 2%. Discover is somewhere between 1.6% and 1.8%.

But to follow up on what Snipe said, it would be great to see more gas stations offer gas at a discount for cash transactions as opposed to credit card/check card transactions. Truck stops do it mostly because truckers are likely to spend more on diesel (picture $300-$400 at a fillup as opposed to a $30-$40 regular gas fillup at your local UDF) than your regular gas station.

[Mrs. Garrett]

Very sad. He was my academic advisor.

[Snipe]

I had Prof. Smith for Financial and Managerial Accounting (and yes, I'm an accounting major as well); I also had him as my academic advisor as well. As long as you put in the work in his cllasses, it was a great experience learning the material and some of the real-world examples mentioned above.

It's too bad - he was truly one-of-a-kind as far as the accounting professors that I can remember

Bill Smith would contend that by paying cash you are lowering their transaction costs. Gas stations and credit card transactions amout to billions of transactions costs. He wanted a discount from those costs by avoiding them. It benefits them if you pay cash on the barrellhead. And since it benefits them, he thought it should benefit us. It makes sense to me. He was a man that could predict an America gone wild in debt, and argue the case about giving credit and a discout for paying your bills on time and in cash.

If Bill Smith had lived a couple more years, I know he wouldn't be affected directly by the mortgage meltdown. He wasn't a man of debt and he didn't like easy credit. He was oldschool in my book. When I think oldschool, that is exactly who I think of. Crew cut and all. No free lunch. You get what you get and it is what it is. To me the man was ripped out of the pages of Normal Rockwell and the United States Marine Corps. God Bless him, and God Bless us for having the privilege.

[Fred Garvin]

"and God Bless us for having the priviledge(sic)"

Uggh.

[Snipe]

It has been reported that I have a drinking problem. I completely deny that.

[X-band '01]

Bill Smith would contend that by paying cash you are lowering their transaction costs. Gas stations and credit card transactions amout to billions of transactions costs. He wanted a discount from those costs by avoiding them. It benefits them if you pay cash on the barrellhead. And since it benefits them, he thought it should benefit us. It makes sense to me. He was a man that could predict an America gone wild in debt, and argue the case about giving credit and a discout for paying your bills on time and in cash.


It's actually 2 separate points to consider- the first part is transaction costs (the cost per credit card transaction plus the percentage that VI/MC/AX/DC takes off) that a merchant pays for each credit card transaction. The second point is cash flow - it takes about 2-5 business days for credit card batches to post into a company's account whereas cash and check transactions have faster liquidity (meaning that they would post into a bank account faster than credit card batches would).

That's also why many businesses would offer terms like 2/10 Net 30 (or other discount terms can be negotiated) to other businesses - cash flow.