ABSTRACT
George O. May was happily engaged in controversy to the end of his life, and it was characteristic of him that he preferred to be judged on the record, without any deference to the position of eminence which he occupied in his profession. As a consultant to the Treasury Department from 1917 through 1932, he made major contributions to government and Congressional understanding of the accountant’s concept of income in Federal taxation. In his own view, perhaps his most important work was his leadership in discussions and exchange of letters with the New York Stock Exchange, which led in 1932 to the first authoritative approach to “generally accepted accounting principles” in corporate financial statements. His major books, Twenty-five Years of Accounting Responsibility and Financial Accounting will always remain classics in accounting literature, together with his almost innumerable articles, and his work with Oswald Knauth in drafting the report of the Study Group on Business Income in 1952.
