Kerry Jacobs – critical scholar

• Date: 01 November 2018
• Author: Irvine Lapsley
• Published date: 01 November 2018
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1111/faam.12160

DOI: 10.1111/faam.12160

OBITUARY

Kerry Jacobs – critical scholar

Irvine Lapsley∗

Kerry Jacobs was born on 1 March, 1968. He passed away on 28 February,2018, the day before his 50th birthday.

This is a tribute to the superb contribution which Kerry Jacobs made to his subject. Kerry Jacobs was an exceptional

scholar. He was adventurous in his selection of research topics. He was alwaysasking difficult questions. This tribute

is also testimony to the kind of person Kerry Jacobs was: to know Kerry was to be engaged in scholarship, but it also

meant you were embracedby the warmth of his generous nature. Kerry was a wonderful man. He had so much to offer.

He gave so much. His ability to reach out and makefriends across the globe was extraordinary. Kerry was always open

to ideas, to discussions and to engaging with people.

We first met in 1997 when I visited the University of Canterbury in New Zealand (I was invited to speak at a con-

ference in Canberra in Australia and Kerry invited me to Christchurch saying it was nearby. It may have been nearby

for someone from the Southern hemisphere, but for a European, that was an optimistic description. In one of these

strange coincidences, Kerry passed away in Canberra,the city where we first connected). On that visit to Canterbury

in 1997, I was so impressed by the way Kerry engaged with his colleagues and students. As he went about, he loved

talking to people. Not just talking to other professors like himself, but to everyone—doctoralstudents, younger staff

members and new members to scientific communities. There was always warmth in his welcome. As a scholar,he had

read widely and had a real depth of knowledge. He was always willing to share this to help people. My overwhelming

impression of him at that first meeting was his friendliness to everyone he met. And it provedthat was exactly how he

was throughout his life.

During that visit to the University of Canterbury, I mentioned that there was a vacant lectureship at Edinburgh

which may have been of interest to him. At that time Kerry was planning a trip to the UK to take part in an interna-

tional conference. As part of that trip, he visited Edinburgh and he met colleagues in our department before returning

home. At that time Kerrywas working with Jane Broadbent and Richard Laughlin, using the work of the critical scholar,

Habermas. In his visit to Edinburgh, he met with our then Dean of the Faculty,the late Professor Neil McCormick, who

askedwhat kind of research he was doing. Kerry mentioned his work on Habermas. He was astounded by the response

of our Dean, who was a personal friend of Jurgen Habermas. Kerry was in his element. We persuaded Kerry to apply

for our vacant post and he joined us in Edinburgh. During his time at Edinburgh, Kerry was a committed researcher,

but he was also a good citizen in his academic department. He represented his department on the Faculty Teaching

Committee, he was administrator for our honours students and he was a Director of Studies. He also represented the

Faculty on Senatus and was a member of university teaching reviews. During his time at Edinburgh he developed a

hugely successful course in Critical Accounting. As a proud New Zealander,he was delighted to Chair the New Zealand

Studies Committee at the Universityof Edinburgh. At that time, I was Head of School. We had a rather limited approach

to the allocation of dissertation supervision. I asked Kerry and David Grant (a Canadian) to devise a new system and

they did developa new system, which was a significant improvement on previous practice. During his period as a mem-

ber of staff at Edinburgh, his colleagues discovered Kerry's extraordinaryrepertoire of outside interests. Kerry could

∗Director,IPSAR, University of Edinburgh Business School, 29 Buccleuch Place, Edinburgh EH92JS UK. Email: Irvine.Lapsley@ed.ac.uk

Financial Acc & Man. 2018;34:311–313. wileyonlinelibrary.com/journal/faam c

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