Eric Kohler

Who was Eric Kohler?

Eric Louis Kohler was an American accountant, the author of a widely used dictionary of accounting.

Kohler was born on July 9, 1892, in Owosso, Michigan. He did his undergraduate studies at the University of Michigan, graduating in 1914, and went on to earn a master's degree from Northwestern University. He then worked at Arthur Andersen from 1915 to 1920. From 1922 to 1928 he held a faculty position at Northwestern, while also working with Paul W. Pettengill for their own accounting firm, Kohler, Pettengill & Co. From 1935 to 1937 he worked again for Arthur Andersen. During this time, Kohler was the author or co-author of several books on accounting, including Accounting Principles Underlying Federal Income Taxes, Principles of Auditing, and Accounting for Business Executives. He was president of the American Accounting Association in 1936, a role he would reprise in 1946, and editor of The Accounting Review from 1928 until 1942.

In 1938, Kohler entered public service, as the controller of the Tennessee Valley Authority, a position he held until 1941. During World War II, he worked in the Office of Emergency Management and War Production Board, and the Petroleum Administration for War. He received the Gold Medal of the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants in 1945. He was controller of the Economic Cooperation Administration, which oversaw the Marshall Plan, in 1948 and 1949, but otherwise worked as a private consultant in the postwar period.