Jacob “Jake” Birnberg, Robert W. Murphy Jr. professor of management control systems in the School of Business for 42 years, with an additional 20 years as a dedicated emeritus faculty member, died Aug. 28, 2026, at 92.
"Jake took such joy in helping other people succeed,” said Vicky Hoffman, professor emerita at Pitt Business. “He helped me as a junior faculty member and has helped countless others. He kept up with so many people and was truly thrilled with other people’s successes.”
Birnberg kept actively involved in scholarship during retirement and stayed in touch with many former PhD students.
“Almost every former doctoral student I have been in touch with, many of whom are chaired professors at other universities today, have said that they owe their career to Jake or that he had a tremendous impact on their career,” Hoffman said.
Birnberg joined the Joseph M. Katz Graduate School of Business in 1964 after serving on the faculty at the University of Minnesota and the University of Chicago’s Graduate School of Business. Additionally, he taught at the London Graduate School of Business Studies and Oxford University (Templeton College).
He published more than 100 papers in journals, books and conference proceedings spanning not just accounting, but human behavior, management science, psychology and public policy. His scholarship focused on the application of behavioral sciences to accounting problems, examining questions from both the organizational and the individual or group level.
As Don Moser, professor emeritus at Pitt Business, recalled: "It was Jake’s boundless intellectual curiosity and openminded view of research that built the accounting area into the prominent research group it became under his leadership,”
Birnberg served as editor of Behavioral Research in Accounting (1995-1997) and as an associate editor of Accounting, Organizations and Society at the same time, and remained active on the editorial boards of numerous accounting journals after his retirement. He was president of the Management Accounting Section of the American Accounting Association (2004-2005) and continued to be an engaged member of that section and of the Accounting, Behavior and Organizations section.
Among his many accolades were the Lifetime Scholarly Contribution Award (1999) from the Accounting, Behavior and Organizations Section of the American Accounting Association; Outstanding Accounting Educator Award (2002) from the American Accounting Association.; and the Lifetime Contribution to Management Accounting Award (2009) from the Management Accounting Section of the American Accounting Association.
Doctoral student development was one of his passions. He served for many years as academic director of the Doctoral Program and chaired more than 30 PhD dissertations. He was known to send messages of congratulations when former students or colleagues were published.
His legacy goes beyond the field of accounting since he took the time to connect on a personal level.
“He was truly a kind and generous person and has played such an important role in so many of our lives,” said Moser. “Jake was so highly regarded by scholars around the world that, whenever I visited other campuses, faculty members would ask me about Jake and tell me to take back greetings.”
Birnberg was a visionary scholar defined above all by his boundless intellectual curiosity, extraordinary generosity and lifelong commitment to helping others.
Memorial gifts are suggested to the Jacob Birnberg Recognition Fund, created several years ago by former doctoral students who wanted to recognize his many efforts on their behalf.
He was the husband of Stephanie and is survived by his daughters; Marcie (Tim) Austen, Carla Birnberg and Dana Birnberg, as well as four grandchildren.
A memorial service in partnership with Pitt will be held at a date to be announced.
— Carole Reinert, senior marketing and communications analyst, School of Busines