Demise of my "Third Cousin"

In today's world where one hardly knows one's first cousin, it may seem strange for me to blog the passing of my third cousin.



John Jacob was the Associate Professor in Accounting at the College of Business and Administration, University of Colorado at Boulder University of Colarado, Denver. John was the great grandson of the late K. I. Varughese Mappillai (KIVM), the founder of the Malayala Manorama. K. V. Eapen, son of KIVM was too young to run the newspaper and that responsibility fell on my grandfather, Kandathil Cherian Mammen Mappillai, (KCMM) who was the eldest son of the eldest brother of K. I. Varghese Mappillai, K. I. Cherian. (See below for details.)

Many people have asked me why it was that that John's grandfather K. V. Eapen did not take over the running of the Malayala Manorama, and how was it that KCMM took over its running. In this I must quote directly from the Autobiography of KCMM, "Reminiscences" published in English in 1980 (Page 90).

"........, I was assisting Varughese Mappillai in conducting the Malayala Manorama. He had left the entire job of running the newspaper on my shoulders a few years prior to his demise, owing to his ill-health and had retired to Thiruvalla. Up to his demise, the renumeration he received from Malayala Manorama was only Rs. 40/- an amount which was hardly enough to meet his expenses.

When Varughese Mappillai passed away, the question arose as to who should succeed him as the manager and editor of the paper. As his son, K. V. Eapen was only a youth the idea of his being entrusted with the task did not arise. Eapen Vakil and Mathulla Mappillai toyed with the idea of having a go at it. One thing was sure: whoever took over charge, would not be able to manage the paper without my assistance and co-operation. As for me, I could not forgo my job in the school since the financial position of Malayala Manorama was not sound enough to entertain such a proposition. Meanwhile since my brother K.C. Eapen who had just passed his B. A. expressed his desire to join Manorama the others naturally withdrew their claims and he took over charge as the manager of Malayala Manorama.

I had explained to John this part of the history as he had wanted to know why his father had not taken over the Malayala Manorama.

John passed away on Friday 8th June in Denver, Colarado after a massive heart attack.

The last email we had from John was thanking Annikki, my wife, for her desktop calendar of cakes which he said would proudly adorn his desk for the whole year.

from John Jacob
to Jacob Matthan
subject Thank you

Dear Sushilchayan and Anniki,

Thank you for the lovely desk calendar you sent. It is beautiful and will adorn my desk for the rest of the year.

Annikki, you are a very talented person.

Take care,

John

John and I had been in regular correspondence for many years. He was a devout Christian.

From my records, his wife is Elizabeth, and his daughter, Neha, who was born in 1990 and is now just 17. It is such a tragedy to lose a husband and a father, at such a young age.

John's mother, Omena, is the daughter of K. V. Eapen. K. V. Eapen was my grandfather's first cousin, making his mother, Omena, my mother's second cousin. John, Sarah and Ranjeet, are my third cousins.

John's father is M. C. Jacob who is the son of M. A. Chacko. I am not sure of much details of that side of John's family.

John's brother, Ranjeet George Jacob, was with me in St. Stephen's Coillege and is now retired and lives in Madras.

John's funeral will be on Wednesday the 13th of June 2007 in Denver, Colorado.

I think I should give the CV of John as obtained from the web site of the University.

CV of the Late Associate Professor John Jacob
College of Business and Administration
University of Colorado at Boulder
Campus Box 419
Boulder, Colorado 80309-0419

Education:
Ph.D., Accounting & Information Systems, Northwestern University, 1995
Post-graduate Diploma in Business Management, Xavier Labour Relations Institute, Jamshedpur, India, 1981
B.Tech., Indian Institute of Technology, Madras, India, 1979

Professional Experience:
Academic Experience:
University of Colorado at Boulder, Associate Professor, 2000 - present.
University of Colorado at Denver, Assistant Professor, 1994 - 2000.
Northwestern University, Teaching Assistant 1993 - 1994.

Industry Experience:
Balmer Lawrie & Co., Calcutta, India, 1981-89

Publications:
"The Use of Accounting Flexibility to Reduce Labor Renegotiation Costs and Manage Earnings," (Co-authored with Julia D'Souza and K. Ramesh). Forthcoming in the Journal of Accounting and Economics.
"Electric Utility Stranded Costs: Valuation and Disclosure Issues" (Co-authored with Julia D'Souza). Forthcoming in the Journal of Accounting Research.
"Nuclear Decommissioning Costs: The Impact of Recoverability Risk on Valuation," (Co-authored with Julia D'Souza and Naomi Soderstrom), Journal of Accounting and Economics Vol. 29, (2000) 207-230.
"Autocorrelation Structure of Forecast Errors from Time-Series Models: Implications for Post-Earnings Announcement Drift Studies," (Co-authored with Thomas Lys and Jowell Sabino), Journal of Accounting and Economics Vol. 28, (2000) 329-358.
"Why Firms Issue Targeted Stock" (Co-authored with Julia D'Souza), Journal of Financial Economics Vol. 56, (2000) 459-483.
"Meltdown- or Not? - For Utilities (Co-authored with Julia D'Souza, Naomi Soderstrom and Carol Panchula), Journal of Accountancy, March 2000.
"Expertise in the Forecasting Performance of Security Analysts." (Co-authored with Thomas Lys and Margaret Neale), Journal of Accounting and Economics, Vol. 28 (1999) 51-82.
"Discussion of ' Do Security Analysts Improve Their Performance with Experience ?'" Journal of Accounting Research.(Supplement 1997), 159-165.
"Taxes and Transfer Pricing: Income Shifting and the Volume of Intra-Firm Transfers," Journal of Accounting Research, Autumn 1996, 301-312.

Working Papers:
"Determinants and Implications of the Auto-Correlation in Analysts' Forecast Errors." (Co-authored with Thomas Lys). Under review at the Journal of Accounting, Auditing and Finance.
Estimating Autocorrelation Coefficients in Small Samples, (Co-authored with Thomas Lys and Jowell Sabino).

Instructional Cases:
Trident Utility: Accounting for Nuclear Decommissioning Costs. (Co-authored with Julia D'Souza and Naomi Soderstrom), Journal of Accounting Education Vol. 18 (2000) 157-169.

Conference Presentations:
"Taxes and Transfer-Pricing: Income Shifting and the Volume of Intra-Firm Transfers," was presented at the annual meeting of the American Accounting Association, 1995.
"Expertise in the Forecasting Performance of Security Analysts." was presented by my co-author at the annual meeting of the American Accounting Association, 1997.
" Electric Utility Stranded Costs: Valuation and Disclosure Issues," was presented by my co-author at the annual meeting of the American Accounting Association, 1998 and at the fourth annual conference on contemporary accounting issues, Taipei, Taiwan, 1998.
"Nuclear Decommissioning Costs: The Impact of Recoverability Risk on Valuation," was presented at the annual meeting of the American Accounting Association, 1999.
"Accounting Flexibility and Income Management: The Case of OPEB Obligation Recognition" was presented at the annual meeting of the American Accounting Association, 2000.

Grants:
Recipient of $5,000 research grant (jointly with Prof. Naomi Soderstrom) from the Colorado Society of Certified Public Accountants in 1997 to study the accounting for nuclear decommissioning costs.

Other Indicators of Scholarship:
Recipient (jointly with co-author Julia D'Souza) of best paper award at the fourth annual conference on contemporary accounting issues, Taipei, Taiwan, 1998 for "Electric Utility Stranded Costs: Valuation and Disclosure Issues."
Qualified for the National Science Talent Scholarship awarded by the Government of India.
Fellowship from Northwestern University, 1989-92.

I have conveyed the information to Malayala Manorama who will be publishing the details for those in Kerala to read.

I have conveyed condolences to his wife Elizabeth and daughter, Neha, through Tusheeta David, daughter of John's sister, Sarah, who was kind enough to let me know of this sad news.

May his good soul rest in peace,