We want to hear your memories about your time at Mercy College of Detroit, University of Detroit and University of Detroit Mercy. To tell us your story, click on Submit a Story Idea in the menu bar above. This submission is by Ed Farragher ’66, who was a college professor at several universities across the country, including University of Detroit Mercy.
I want to thank the excellent University of Detroit accounting professors — William Serraino, Richard Czarnecki, Geraldine Dominiak, Charlton Schoeffler, Ronald Horwitz, Frank Pinkelman, and Leonard Plachta — who provided the knowledge and guidance that I needed to have a rewarding career as a university professor. Due to their efforts, the mid-60s was a great time to be a University of Detroit accounting student.
I was privileged to have Dr. Serraino and Dr. Czarnecki as the instructors for Financial Accounting I and Financial Accounting II, respectively. They were tough but presented the basics of financial accounting so well that I easily understood financial accounting over the rest of my life. Professor Serraino moved to Miami of Ohio where he served as department chair and authored a very popular “Introduction to Financial Management” textbook. After leaving U of D, Professor Czarnecki was one of the founders of the accounting program at the University of Michigan Dearborn, an outstanding presenter of many Michigan Association of CPAs (MACPA) continuing education programs, and one of only five academics to win the annual MACPA Outstanding Professional Award.
Dr. Dominiak taught me managerial and cost accounting course. She was a pioneering woman in the academic accounting area and an outstanding instructor. After leaving U of D, she became the chair of the accounting department at Texas Christian University, and the author of a very popular managerial accounting textbook.
Hearing that Dr. Schoeffler was a very rigorous instructor, I jumped at the opportunity to take Intermediate Accounting from a new, young professor, Dr. Horwitz. I think I jumped from the frying pan into the fire! Professor Horwitz was very demanding and extremely knowledgeable. After leaving U of D, he became dean of Oakland University’s School of Business, vice president for Academic Affairs at OU, and served on Providence Hospital’s board of directors for many years.
Then I enrolled in Dr. Schoeffler’s Intermediate Accounting II course. And it was great! He was very knowledgeable and entertaining, and was instrumental in leading me to the University of Illinois for my advanced degrees. Professor Schoeffler spent his entire academic career at U of D and is a professor that every U of D accounting graduate remembers.
My Advanced Accounting instructor was Professor Pinkelman. He was another extremely knowledgeable, tough but fair instructor. Professor Pinkelman was the person who suggested that I pursue an academic career and I am forever thankful for his advice. He left U of D and became the Michigan auditor general and then vice president and general auditor for Blue Cross/Blue Shield of Michigan.
Although I never enrolled in one of his classes, Dr. Plachta was my academic advisor and guided my U of D business education. He moved to Central Michigan University and served as dean of CMU’s College of Business and president of the university.
Although he was not an accounting instructor, I must mention my academic role model, Dr. Rikuma Ito. Because I took Statistics I and II from Dr. Ito, I was fully prepared for my graduate statistic courses and academic research career. He was a very organized and knowledgeable, instructor. Throughout my academic career, I strove to be a Dr. Ito instructional clone. Dr. Ito eventually became dean of U of D’s College of Commerce and president of Ziebart International.
I am truly thankful for having the above as my instructors. I was truly lucky to have been taught by authors of notable academic textbooks, a winner of the MACPA Outstanding Professional Award, three business school deans, a Michigan auditor general, a vice president and general auditor for Blue Cross/Blue Shield of Michigan, a university president, and the president of a major international corporation.
