In Memorium: Dr. Larry Killough

Larry Neil Killough, 89, of Claytor Lake, passed away on Wednesday, January 19, 2022. Larry taught accounting for 45 years in the ACIS Department at Virginia Tech.  Larry’s research expertise and primary teaching area were Cost and Managerial Accounting.   He co-authored eight books and more than sixty academic and practitioner journal articles.  In addition, Larry had numerous conference proceedings published, and spoke at over thirty professional meetings.

Larry was an outstanding classroom teacher.  He supervised over twenty Ph.D. dissertations as chair, and served on an additional twenty dissertations as either a committee member or external reviewer.  Over his career, he received several recognitions of his accomplishments including Pamplin Outstanding Undergraduate Teaching Award, Pamplin Outstanding Teaching award for Doctoral Programs, and SAAC Professor of the year.  Moreover, for his teaching and research accomplishments he was awarded the KPMG professorship in accounting, which he held for over thirty years.  In addition, he served as department head of accounting for nine years.

Over his career, Larry served the department, college, university, and accounting profession on an extensive number  of committees.   One specific committee assignment deserves special mention.  For nineteen years, he was the university representative for athletics to the NCAA.  This is an extraordinary  amount of time for one individual to serve in this capacity.  His tenure as NCAA representative spanned several different university presidents, athletic directors, and conference affiliations.  All of which point to the quality of the job he did in representing the university.

Larry’s interests were not limited to academe.  He loved boating, sailing, swimming, skiing, woodworking, and scuba diving.  He also became a scuba diving instructor.  In his younger days, he enjoyed playing softball, basketball, volleyball, and participating in other sporting activities.  In addition, Larry was a long-time avid Hokie sports fan.