ABSTRACT
The story of Leonard Paul Spacek’s rise to prominence in the field of professional accountancy, and achievements at the helm of Arthur Andersen & Co., testifies to his strength of character and high sense of purpose. In 1924, Spacek joined the Iowa Electric Light and Power Company with the intention of becoming an electrical engineer. Spacek was promoted to manager in 1934 and admitted as partner in 1940, in charge of the firm’s regulated industry practice. Spacek’s prodigious professional energies ran in two main streams: piloting his rapidly expanding firm and championing various perceived needs for change in accounting thinking and practice. Leonard Spacek may perhaps be best known and remembered for his concept of an accounting court, or court of accounting principles, which he outlined in a speech at the annual convention of the American Accounting Association in August, 1957.
