ABSTRACT
Lawrence Lee Vance's contributions to the accounting literature provide an example of creativity, scholarship, and thoroughness for future generations of accountants. During the time that he was in public accounting, Larry began teaching at the Minneapolis YMCA, gaining valuable teaching experience, and it soon became obvious that teaching was his first love. He was one of the first to apply statistical sampling theory to auditing procedures, and he was the first person to write a large scale treatise on the subject. Since 1950, the auditing profession has seen an increasingly important role being played by statistics. Since all auditing is primarily based on sampling, there was a great need, as Larry Vance so succinctly pointed out, for a more rigorous approach to sampling. Prior to 1950 all sampling was done on a judgmental basis, the only guides being experience, training, and a qualitative assessment of the system of internal accounting controls of the company being audited.
