Samuel Paul Gamer, Professor and Dean Emeritus of the College of Commerce and Business Administration at The University of Alabama, is recognized as a leader in the educational aspects of international business, with special attention to its accounting relationships. Even though he retired in 1971, he has remained an active participant in professional organizations throughout the world. His colleagues have said he is probably one of the best-known living academicians in America, Europe, and Asia.
During all of his fifty years of travels in pursuit of knowledge of the international aspects of business management and in attendance at numerous professional meetings, Paul Garner’s goal has been to inform people about The University of Alabama and its academic programs. His public relations efforts have earned him the unofficial title of The University of Alabama’s “Ambassador to the World.”
Samuel Paul Garner was born in Yadkinville, North Carolina (near Winston-Salem) on August 15, 1910. He was the oldest of the seven children of Samuel W. and Ila Jane (Hoots) Garner. His father owned and operated a large country store before opening a Yellow Cab Company in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, in 1921.
Paul Garner’s early education consisted of a combination of private tutorage and attendance in one-room schoolhouses. After the seventh grade, he attended Mineral Springs High School from which he graduated in 1927 as valedictorian in his class.
For twelve months after graduation, the young man worked full-time for his father’s taxi business and banked his savings in order to attend college. His savings, plus loans and a four-year tuition scholarship, enabled him to enter Duke University. In 1932, he graduated (Phi Beta Kappa) in the top ten of his class with an A.B. in economics (with minors in languages and physics).
Paul Garner’s interest in other countries and other cultures had been kindled by a sixth-grade geography teacher. Thus, the twenty one-year-old college graduate used the $500 he had managed to save from the many jobs he held during his college years to finance a graduation trip to Europe. This first venture abroad was the forerunner of sixty other trips he would take to ninety-five countries in years to come. But the ensuing trips would be primarily for business and to make contacts for the University.
Another scholarship enabled him to return to Duke University in September 1932 to work on his master’s degree, which he received in 1934. After serving as an instructor at Duke for the academic year 1934-35, he was an Assistant Professor at Mississippi State University for two years.
Between 1937 and 1939, Paul Garner served as an Instructor at the University of Texas while earning his Ph.D. During these two years, he not only completed his course work, passed his preliminary exams in four disciplines, and his oral comprehensive, but also almost completed his dissertation.
In 1939, he accepted the offer of Dean Lee Bidgood to become an Associate Professor of Accounting at The University of Alabama. By the fall of 1940, Paul Garner had finished his dissertation and was awarded his Ph.D. By 1943, he had been promoted to Professor. In 1949, he was named to succeed Chester Knight as head of the Accounting Department. In 1954, he became the second dean of the College of Commerce and Business Administration when Dean Lee Bidgood retired.
During his tenure as dean (1954-1971) Dr. Garner led the College to new heights through the example he set as a researcher, a writer, an administrator, a leader in professional organizations, and in interaction with the business community. He encouraged faculty members in these areas as well as in the development and expansion of activities in the College, such as the Ph.D. program.
During his years as an academician and administrator, Paul Garner has written more than fifty professional articles which have appeared in more than forty-nine publications involving at least twelve languages. He has also authored or co-authored seven textbooks. His revised dissertation, The Evolution of Cost Accounting to 1925 (first published in 1954) has been translated into Japanese and Chinese and was in 1991 called a significant milestone in inter national accounting literature (see The Costing Heritage: Studies in Honor of S. Paul Garner, published by the Academy of Accounting Historians, Harrisonburg, Virginia, 1991.) In recognition of Dr. Garner’s outstanding contribution to accounting research and education, the faculty of the University’s Culverhouse School of Accountancy voted unanimously in 1990 to call the school’s Center for Current Accounting Issues, “The Paul Garner Center.”
Over the years, Dr. Garner has been the president or a ranking officer in virtually all of the major accounting organizations. He has also held the presidency of major academic groups such as the American Assembly of Collegiate Schools of Business (the accreditation body for business schools in the United States).
He has traveled and lectured extensively throughout the United States and the world. He has developed hundreds of contacts with businesses and universities in the U.S.; and with foreign educators, students, businessmen, and government officials through his attendance at more than thirty world congresses. By cross indexing the names of his national and international friends, he has established a file of more than 5,000 people in over 125 countries.
Even in retirement, Dean Emeritus Paul Garner maintains correspondence with people all over the world. Businesses, faculty members, students, and other individuals still come to or call Dean Garner for advice about whom to contact to help them achieve their desired goals in our “global village.”
Dr. Garner has also been active in civic affairs almost from the first day he arrived in Tuscaloosa. For example, he has been a financial advisor to the City for five decades. He has served on the boards of at least four local businesses – something he always encouraged faculty members to do so that they would have working experience in the business world. He has served as a director of the Chamber of Commerce, as a member of the board of the YMCA, and (since retirement) on the board of FOCUS. He has also been an active member of the Alabama Export Council, and many other groups.
For his leadership, Dr. Paul Garner has received numerous awards and honors over the years. For example, in 1988 alone he received public service awards from the American Institute of CPAs and the Alabama Society of CPAs, and the Financial Service Award from the city of Tuscaloosa. In 1990, he was named the International Accounting Educator of the year by the American Accounting Association; and in 1991, he received the Presidential Citation of Distinguished Service from Beta Gamma Sigma. Previous honors have included the prestigious Dow Jones Award and Prize in 1976 and honorary degrees from Pusan National University (Korea) in 1966 and The University of Alabama in 1971.
Dean Emeritus Paul Garner is married to the former Ruth Bailey, whom he met at Duke University. They have three children and four grandchildren.
