College Comptroller Retires

Ends 29 Years of Service As Business Officer

ROBERT D. FUNKHOUSER '27, Comptroller of the College for the past 16 years, retires October 1. He asked to be relieved of his duties for reasons of health, but will continue to serve as special consultant to his successor, James W. Stevens '50, formerly Director of Planning and Project Administration, and to handle special accounting assignments for the Treasurer.

Mr. Funkhouser has been on the Dartmouth staff since 1937 when he was named Assistant Bursar. He also served as Assistant Professor of Accounting at Tuck from 1944 to 1948 and as Acting Bursar from 1947 to 1948.

In 1950 he was named Comptroller, the first to fill that post for the College. His duties were to handle the accounting, budgeting, payrolls, cash disbursements, and staff benefit programs. The Comptroller is also responsible for financial reports.

He pioneered some of the mechanics of the "market value method," used by investment trusts for the distribution of endowment income, in college accounting. His two papers on this subject, presented to the Eastern Association of College and University Business Officers in 1953 and 1959, stimulated many other institutions to adopt similar accounting techniques.

In his 29 years with the College, he has worked in three accounting eras. At the start of his career, figures were hand posted. Later, simple accounting machines were introduced. Now much of the job involves electronic data processing.

When Mr. Funkhouser joined the administration in 1937, the College had assets of $24.5 million. This year assets stand at $150 million. He points to the accounting activity generated by this increase as the biggest change in his financial responsibilities over 29 years. In 1937 he handled income and disbursements on a budget of $1.9 million. This year's budget is well over ten times that amount.

Mr. Funkhouser is a native of Dayton, Ohio. As an undergraduate he was a member of Chi Phi, Casque and Gauntlet, Green Key Society and Palaeopitus.

After earning his M.C.S. degree at Tuck School in 1929, he worked for the Motor Accounting Company of Detroit and the Frigidaire Corporation in Dayton.

He served on the Executive Committee of the Eastern Association of College and University Business Officers in 1961-62. He was a trustee for several years of the Howe Library and has been a trustee since 1947 of Casque and Gauntlet. In 1951 he was appointed to the Board of Directors of the New Hampshire-Vermont Physicians Service for a three-year term. At Hanover's Church of Christ he served as treasurer, 1941-45, and as a Deacon from 1950 to 1958.

He and his wife, the former Margaret Mann of Dayton and Oberlin, make their home at 6 Dana Road in Hanover. They have three daughters. Pat (Mrs. John Kirby) of Manchester has a daughter Debbie. Gretchen (Mrs. Ryan Ostebo '60) of Millbrook, N. Y. has a son Eric. Daughter Debbie is a senior at Connecticut College.