Professor John Shank at Tuck in 1993

A Passion to Know, A Passion
to Tell

Professor John Shank passed away on March 30, 2006, in California. A memorial service was in his memory on May 21 at the Tuck School.

Students and alumni recalling experiences with Professor John Shank sound like veterans spinning yarns from boot camp—except that the lessons were so advanced, Special Forces training would be the more apt analogy.

Even faculty who occasionally sparred with him often felt invigorated by the experience. "While John and I would often disagree on matters of principle, such as the significance of marginal cost, after a heated discussion we would reach an understanding that we really did not differ on substance at all," says Senior Associate Dean Bob Hansen.

An era truly came to end upon Shank's formal retirement in June 2004. The era began in 1984, when he became Noble Professor of Managerial Accounting and Management Control at Tuck, a chair endowed by Sam Noble, head of Noble Oil Co., with Shank in mind.

Although Shank made it plain he would not be thrilled by a traditional retirement party, students say he entered into the spirit of a surprise demonstration of respect they staged. "We lined the hallways coming up the stairs toward Stell Hall after he left his class," recalls co-organizer Prat Verma T'04. "We had a bunch of gag gifts based on his cases. There was tapioca pudding—he had a case about transporting tapioca from Singapore. And the cheapest bottle of wine I could possibly buy, three bucks, because he always used to say wine is a hobby business—you don't do it to make money."

Students also prepared a PowerPoint presentation of memorable quotes from classes: "He stepped through that and added his own comments," Verma says. Of course students presented a real gift as well.

"Regardless of how well you prepared, he would drill down and expose you to things you hadn't thought about and should have," Verma says. Some students found that "painful." But sometimes "he would go off for a couple of minutes on a tangent through art, media, politics—some controversial issue—that was really fun and enjoyable."

"Heavens, the man strikes fear in my heart when I just think about his cold calls," recalls Amy Baker T'95. "But he sure opened my eyes, and I ended up really liking him."

"Professor Shank loved to debate and truly loved to get inside matters and not just gloss over questions with canned answers," says Cindy Varga T'99. "No one dared arrive at class late or unprepared. But I feel the 'fear' was based on well-earned respect for him. Recently I met a graduate from 1992. Not surprisingly we asked each other, 'So, did you have Professor Shank?' As soon as we both said, 'Yes,' instant reminiscing began."

While Shank presented accounting as an excellent route to truth, all agree he held other subjects in high esteem and demanded that students integrate their knowledge and study of all business subjects into their approach to accounting and strategy.

"His style of delivery was brash at times, entertaining at times, but all in a way that led to very high engagement," says Barry Winer T'96. "The course was very much case-based, a somewhat nontraditional way of teaching accounting. The product, the company, the story might seem mundane, but the teaching and insight were absolutely tremendous. It entirely changed my perspective on the power of knowledge of accounting. It was almost forensic accounting he was teaching, before I had heard that phrase."

"I remember evenings when a group of us would get together over brandy and cigars at John's house and talk about the curriculum, the school—gossip about what was going on at other schools," recalls Professor Colin C. Blaydon, who was dean when Shank arrived at Tuck. "He just had a passionate interest in what happened in the classroom, how the school and the curriculum developed. When asked, John once said that what made a great teacher was 'a passion to know, coupled with a passion to tell.'

"John and I began our academic careers together as assistant professors at the Harvard Business School," Blaydon concludes. "As a brand-new dean at Tuck, I was very proud of being part of recruiting John."