ABSTRACT
Early in life, William Joseph Vatter aspired to be a professional musician. At the Conservatory of Music, he studied the French horn with Modest Alloo. He tried his hand at playing in theater orchestras, but the introduction of talking pictures in the late 1920s and early 1930s sounded the death knell of the pit orchestra in the movie houses. In the course of his musical activities, he met Rose Schumacher of Batesville, Indiana, who introduced him to the study of accounting. He found a job as a junior auditor with Singer Sewing Machine Company in Cincinnati. In 1936, he held the title of Instructor; in 1957 he was Professor of Accounting and Production Control. From 1942 to 1944 he was Director of Finance at the Metallurgic Laboratory at Chicago, which housed the “Manhattan Project” that developed the first atomic bomb. His interest in managerial accounting resulted in a collection of materials prepared for student use.
