Bruce Tabb
{{Short description|New Zealand accountancy academic (1927–2022)}}
{{Use New Zealand English|date=December 2024}}
{{Infobox academic
| name = Bruce Tabb
| image =
| alt =
| caption =
| birth_name = James Bruce Tabb
| birth_date = {{Birth date|1927|03|03|df=y}}
| birth_place = San Francisco, California, U.S.
| death_date = {{Death date and age|2022|05|20|1927|03|03|df=y}}
| death_place = Auckland, New Zealand
| nationality = New Zealander
| spouse = {{marriage|Julie Margaret Cooper|1968}}
| children = 2
| alma_mater = University of Sheffield
| thesis_url = https://find.shef.ac.uk/permalink/f/15enftp/44SFD_WREO_DS15140
| thesis_title = Accountancy aspects of the takeover bids in Britain 1945–1965
| thesis_year = 1968
| doctoral_advisor = Charles Whittington-Smith
| workplaces = University of Auckland
| known_for =
| occupation =
}}
James Bruce Tabb (3 March 1927 – 20 May 2022) was a New Zealand accountancy academic who specialised in the history of accounting.
Biography
Tabb was born in San Francisco on 3 March 1927 to New Zealanders Walter James Tabb and Christina Sarah Tabb (née Jespersen).{{cite book |editor-last=Traue |editor-first=J. E. |editor-link=Jim Traue |title=Who's Who in New Zealand |edition=11th |year=1978 |publisher=Reed |location=Wellington |isbn=0-589-01113-8 |page=262}} The family returned to New Zealand in 1934,{{cite news |url=https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/EP19340917.2.169 |title=Shipping news |date=17 September 1934 |work=The Evening Post |page=12 |volume=118 |issue=67 |access-date=4 June 2022}} and Tabb was educated at Mount Albert Grammar School in Auckland. He later studied at Auckland University College, graduating with a Bachelor of Commerce degree in 1954, and subsequently earned a Master of Commerce degree in 1963.{{cite web |url=http://shadowsoftime.co.nz/university23.html |title=NZ university graduates 1870–1961: T |website=Shadows of Time |access-date=4 June 2022}}{{cite thesis |url=https://catalogue.library.auckland.ac.nz/permalink/f/t37c0t/uoa_alma21159780240002091 |title=Financial intermediaries and the Auckland public companies |type=MCom |location=University of Auckland |year=1963 |first=James Bruce |last=Tabb |access-date=4 June 2022}}
In 1960, Tabb was appointed a full-time faculty member in the Department of Accountancy at the University of Auckland, and he rose to become a full professor and head of department.{{cite book |url=https://cdn.auckland.ac.nz/assets/calendar/archive/1982-calendar.pdf |title=University of Auckland Calendar |page=18 |year=1980 |access-date=4 June 2022}} He completed a PhD at the University of Sheffield in 1968. The title of his doctoral thesis, supervised by Charles Whittington-Smith, was Accountancy aspects of the takeover bids in Britain 1945–1965.{{cite thesis |url=https://find.shef.ac.uk/permalink/f/15enftp/44SFD_WREO_DS15140 |title=Accountancy aspects of the takeover bids in Britain 1945–1965 |type=PhD |year=1968 |location=University of Sheffield |first=James Bruce |last=Tabb |access-date=4 June 2022}} Following his retirement in 1990, Tabb was accorded the title of professor emeritus.{{cite web |url=https://www.calendar.auckland.ac.nz/en/university-personnel/professores-emeriti.html |title=Professores emeriti |publisher=University of Auckland |access-date=4 June 2022}} He was also a Fellow of the New Zealand Institute of Chartered Accountants.
Tabb's research interests included the history of accounting and company finances, as seen in his doctoral thesis. In the 1960s, he collaborated with economist Muriel Lloyd Prichard, and they produced works including the book Who finances New Zealand companies? in 1966,{{cite book |title=Who finances New Zealand companies |first1=Muriel F. |last1=Lloyd Prichard |first2=James Bruce |last2=Tabb |publisher=Blackwood |location=Auckland |year=1966}} and a history of the Auckland Gas Company, published in 1968.{{cite book |title=One hundred years of the Auckland Gas Co. Ltd. (1862–1962) |first1=Muriel F. |last1=Lloyd Prichard |first2=James Bruce |last2=Tabb |publisher=Auckland Gas Company |year=1968}} He was a contributor to the 1996 publication, The history of accounting: an international encyclopedia.{{cite book |title=The History of Accounting: An International Encyclopedia |editor1-first=Michael |editor1-last=Chatfield |editor2-first=Richard |editor2-last=Vangermeersch |publisher=Garland |location=New York |year=1996 |isbn=0-8153-0809-4 |pages=543–544}}
Tabb married Julie Margaret Cooper on 24 February 1968, and the couple had two children. He died at his home in Auckland on 20 May 2022, at the age of 95.{{cite news |url=https://notices.nzherald.co.nz/nz/obituaries/nzherald-nz/name/james-tabb-obituary?pid=202063735 |title=James Bruce Tabb |date=26 May 2022 |work=The New Zealand Herald |access-date=4 June 2022}}
Selected publications
- {{cite journal |last1=Wilton |first1=R. L. |last2=Tabb |first2=J. B. |title=An investigation into private shareholder usage of financial statements in New Zealand |journal=Accounting Education |year=1978 |issue=May |pages=93–101}}
- {{cite journal |last=Tabb |first=J. B. |title=Reasons for the emergence of contested company take-overs in the 1950s |journal= Accounting and Business Research|volume=11 |year=1981 |issue=44 |pages=323–330|doi=10.1080/00014788.1981.9729718 }}
- {{cite journal |last1=Tabb |first1=J. B. |last2=Frankham |first2=C. B. |title=The Northern Steamship Company: the depreciation problem in the nineteenth century |journal=The Accounting Historians Journal |volume=13 |issue=2 |year=1986 |pages=37–53|doi=10.2308/0148-4184.13.2.37 }}