Stanley Merves was a CPA and founder of Merves & Company accounting firm in the early 1960s, when a friend from high school called with a problem to solve. The friend was facing an $18,000 tax judgment. If Mr. Merves could reduce the judgment, he’d earn a portion of the savings. Mr. Merves took the case and got the tax liability reduced to just $800. Mr. Merves remembers: “He called me into his office and said, ‘Stanley, you were terrible. You upset everybody, got the whole office off kilter. But you got the job done, and I want you to be my accountant.’ We’ve been together ever since.”
Mr. Merves’ friend is Joseph Segel, founder of the Franklin Mint and the QVC shopping network. Mr. Merves was a Franklin Mint board member for many years before it was sold to Warner Communications in 1981. A noted philanthropist whose benevolence extends well beyond the Philadelphia region, Mr. Merves is a strong supporter of Temple University and the Fox School of Business. He has established several scholarships that support the next generation of accounting professionals, including the Stanley Merves Chair of Accounting and Information Technology, the Stanley Merves Fellowship, and the Stanley Merves CPA Undergraduate Scholarship for distinguished accounting majors entering their sophomore or junior years. Recently, Mr. Merves supported the Fox School’s First Annual Accounting Achievement Awards at the highest sponsorship level through the Gilroy & Lillian P. Roberts Charitable Foundation, of which Mr. Merves is the trustee. He has one word of advice for young people who want to get ahead in business: “Experience. You have to know what you’re doing. In other words, once you learn the language of business, then you have to use it. I think six months of experience in accounting is worth a couple of years in school learning the language.”
Temple University Degree
Bachelor of Science ’51, Fox School of Business, Major: Accounting
Temple University Awards & Affiliatons
- Accounting Alumni Hall of Fame
- Acres of Diamond Circle
- Chairman’s Circle
- Conwell Society Award, 2002
- Dean’s Council, Fox School of Business
- F. Eugene Dixon, Jr. Inspiration Award, 2014
- Founder, Stanley Merves Chair of Accounting and Information Technology
- Musser Award for Alumni Achievement, 1999
- Temple University Alumni Association Certificate of Honor Award, 2009
What I wanted to be when I was 20 years old
A businessman
Best piece of advice anyone ever gave me
Never react when you are angry.