Frederick L. "Fred" Neumann, a professor who shaped the Department of Accountancy and went on to help lead the College now known as the Gies College of Business, died Sept. 25, 2026. He was 95.
Neumann joined the faculty as an assistant professor in 1965. He earned tenure and promotion to associate professor in five years and became a full professor five years after that. In 1979, he was endowed as the Price Waterhouse Professor of Accounting and Auditing and held the title until he retired. Neumann served as head of the Department of Accountancy from 1981-1986, during which time the department was named the best in the country.
Neumann served on and chaired numerous departmental, College and University committees, and held several terms in the faculty senate. He spent nearly a decade as associate dean of the College and served as interim dean from 2000 until his retirement.
Over the years, Neumann served on countless doctoral dissertation committees, including that of Executive Associate Dean of Faculty and Research and Arthur R. Wyatt Chair in Accountancy Mark Peecher.
“Fred was a very highly respected scholar educator who emphasized mastery over accounting and audit technical knowledge, but also the need for auditors to be thought leaders and committed professionals,” Peecher said. “He was a pioneering thinker on the concept of materiality in financial reporting and auditing. He even provided some of the first empirical evidence that audit firms applied materiality in quite different ways, making it hard for serious investors to draw useful comparisons across different public companies’ financial statements. Finally, Fred modeled leadership himself, serving as head of the Department of Accountancy, associate dean at the College, and interim dean."
A leader in the profession
Neumann's influence extended well beyond campus. He was a member of the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants and the Institute of Management Accountants and served on committees of both.
He was especially active in the American Accounting Association (AAA), where he was director of publications, served on the board of directors and edited the journal Issues in Accounting Education. He founded the AAA's auditing section and its teaching and curriculum section and served as president of both.
He was also president of the Federation of Schools of Accountancy, which presented him with its Joseph Silvoso Faculty Merit Award. A certified internal auditor, he was the first recipient of the Institute of Internal Auditors' Leon R. Radde Educator of the Year Award.
Neumann served on the board of the Illinois CPA Society and as president of its Eastern Chapter. He was treasurer, then president, of the local chapter of Phi Beta Kappa. He served a term on the McKinley Foundation Board, where he chaired the finance committee, and was the first chair of the Audit Committee of the National Council of Teachers of English.
Before the University of Illinois
Born in New Britain, Conn., Neumann was an Eagle Scout and a graduate of Dartmouth College and its Amos Tuck School of Business. He served as a US Navy officer during the Korean War era, aboard the USS Hornet and the USS Mansfield. He remained in the Naval Reserve and retired as a commander in 1990. He worked as a senior accountant at Arthur Andersen before earning his PhD in business at the University of Chicago.
Outside the classroom, Neumann was a dedicated volunteer. He gave time to organizations including Head Start, the Illinois Marathon, the YMCA, the Virginia Theatre and the Red Cross, and logged more than 10,000 volunteer hours at OSF hospital. He was a certified lay speaker in the Methodist Church. Colleagues and friends remember him for his humility, integrity and kindness.
Neumann was preceded in death by his wife of many years, Grace Elizabeth "Elizabeth" Ann Robinson Neumann. He is survived by his children, Brad (Melody) Neumann, Carla (Kevin) Busick and Marshall (Candi) Neumann, as well as five grandchildren and two great-grandchildren.