Founder, dean of Jones School dies

By Josh Rutenberg     8/26/10 7:00pm

Former Dean and founder of the Jesse H. Jones Graduate School of Business Robert Sterling died June 29, at the age of 79. Dean of the Jones School William Glick said Sterling played a pivotal role in the direction of the Jones School.

"He had a strong impact on the [Jones] School," Glick said. "He recruited top faculty, which is something you want in the dean of a new school."

The Jones School was founded in 1974 using funds from the Houston Endowment Inc., established by Jones and his wife Mary Gibbs Jones.

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Glick said that while Sterling encouraged the Joneses to start up a business school with Rice, he originally shied away from the position of dean. When the Board of Trustees decided on Sterling after an internal search in 1976, he ultimately accepted.

Sterling would spend four years as dean, growing the full-time faculty from three members to 13.

As an accomplished accountant, having been inducted into the Accounting Hall of Fame in 2006, Sterling set the school off with a strong tradition in accounting, Glick said.

Rice holds the distinction of becoming the only university to have four faculty, active or retired, inducted into the Accounting Hall of Fame: Sterling, Phillip Bell, Edgar Edwards and accounting Professor Stephen Zeff.

Sterling also brought in strong faculty members that expanded the school's entrepreneurial programs, Glick said.

He was even responsible for recruiting former President of the United States George H.W. Bush as an adjunct faculty at the Jones School.

Sterling was born in 1931 near Bugtussle, Okla. He served in World War II and the Korean War, and, because of the G.I. Bill, became the first member of his family to attend college. Sterling earned a bachelor's of science degree in economics and a master's degree in business administration from the University of Denver, and received his doctorate from the University of Florida in 1964. He served on the faculty at State University of New York, Yale University and the University of Kansas before joining the Rice faculty. Two of his papers have been listed among the 25 most significant contributions to accounting research in the 20th century, according to an article published in the Journal of Accounting Research. After retiring from the University of Utah in 1991, Sterling moved back to Houston and continued to write.

On July 2, a memorial service for Sterling was held at Christ the King Lutheran Church in Houston.

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