His career has taken him from Stanford to Cornell to Yale to Harvard and back to Cornell.
But the line on Robert Swieringa’s CV that elicits some of the fondest memories dates back to a half-century ago, to the time just before he began a distinguished career in academia.
"I arrived on the University of Illinois campus early in fall 1965 as a new Ph.D. student in accountancy," says Cornell's accounting professor emeritus. "I lived on East Healey and walked down South Sixth and then East Gregory to David Kinley Hall, where about a dozen of us occupied a large rather dark room on the lower level.
"We all taught introductory accounting sections and used the room for student office hours. The room helped us interact with each other and develop friendships, including golf outings at the University Golf Course in Savoy.
"Alas, those golf outings were short-lived after a couple of my colleagues started reading about golf to improve their performance, resulting in increased frustration that became evident when they threw their clubs into a pond.
"We also fought off birds at several holes, but walking the course provided wonderful opportunities to share ideas and interests and to build friendships."
