Career
He is described as "one of the most influential "high priests" of the profession in the Twentieth Century." He was inducted into the Accounting Hall of Fame in 1954. Born in Johnstown, Pennsylvania, to Silas South. and Mary Wertz Blough, Blough obtained his Bachelor in economics in 1917 from Manchester College, and his Master of Arts in 1922 from the University of Wisconsin. In the same year he obtained his Certified Public Accountants license for the state of Wisconsin.
In the year 1932-1933 he did graduate work at Harvard University.
After his graduation in 1917 Blough started as lecturer at the Bridgewater College in 1917, spend two years at Fond du Lac, Wisconsin High School as head of the commercial department, and was instructor in accounting at the University of Wisconsin from 1920 to 1922. From 1922 to 1929 he was employed in the state of Wisconsin civil administration.
In 1929 he was appointed Professor at the University of North Dakota and Head of its Accounting Department, and in 1933 he moved to the Armour Institute of Technology, where he was Professor and Head of the Social Science Department for another year. In 1934 Blough was among the first to joined the new United States. Securities and Exchange Commission.
He started as staff member, and became its first Chief Accountant of the Commission.
In 1944 he became research director at the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants, and became Adjunct Professor of Accounting at Columbia University in 1947 until his retirement in 1961.