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William Mitchell Lybrand was born on August 14, 1867 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States, the son of George W. Lybrand and Sarah Aldred. His father was a Methodist-Episcopal minister. Since the service of a pastor in any church was limited to three years, the family moved frequently. His maternal ancestors were businessmen, and Lybrand later noted with pride that his great-grandfather, William Connolly, was listed in an 1801 New York directory as an accountant.
Lybrand's education was limited to a series of one-room schoolhouses in various towns followed by two years at Philadelphia High School. He left school in 1884. There were no schools at that time where one could gain the necessary expertise to enter the field of public accounting.
In 1884 Lybrand started to work as a clerk for a machine toolbuilding company. He later wrote that he knew "little or nothing about an accountant's work, " but when he was promoted to assistant bookkeeper, he developed a keen interest in the topic of cost accounting.
In 1887 he made a fortuitous decision when he joined the public accounting firm of Heins and Whelan. John Heins was respected in the field, and a person working for him met the most eminent practitioners of the day. It was not easy to work with Heins, for as Lybrand noted, he was "peppery--red pepper. " But although Heins had a violent temper and demanded perfection, he was one of the best accounting teachers of the day. In 1891 Lybrand was promoted to partner. His future seemed secure, but he chose to ally himself with three assistants (T. Edward Ross, Adam Ross, and Robert Montgomery) and start the firm of Lybrand, Ross Brothers and Montgomery, which became the international public accounting firm Coopers and Lybrand.
Membership in the accounting profession was small at the turn of the century, and Lybrand's greatest contributions came through his work in professional organizations. In 1897 the Pennsylvania Association of Public Accountants was formed, and Lybrand was a charter member. He served as treasurer of the Association from 1897 to 1901 and its president from 1902 to 1904. He supported the publication of the Public Accountant, one of the first professional accounting journals in the United States. Lybrand was also one of the organizers and an officer of the Federation of Societies of Public Accountants and the American Association of Public Accountants.
In 1908 Lybrand moved to the New York City office of his firm and began to concentrate on the cost accounting area. In the same year, at the annual meeting of the AAPA, he delivered a paper, "The Accounting for Industrial Enterprises, " in an attempt to generate greater interest in the cost accounting area among accountants. In 1919, believing that the needs of cost accountants were not being met by existing organizations, he helped to organize the National Association of Cost Accountants (now the National Association of Accountants) and served as its second president from 1920 to 1922.
By the time Lybrand died, in Stamford, Connecticut, he had witnessed the attainment of professional status by public accountants, largely because he was one of those men who dedicated their lives to this achievement. His ability to organize men in cooperative efforts provided not only his firm but the accounting profession as a whole with vital leadership in the early struggle for professional recognition.
Lybrand was a successful public accountant and a founder of the firm Coopers and Lybrand. He played an important role in developing educational opportunities for the accountants and securing state public-accounting legislation. During his tenure in the Pennsylvania Association of Public Accountants, he helped design an evening program for assistants in practitioners' offices and was instrumental in persuading the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania to take over the program. He was also the founder of the few accounting societies. In 1947 the Lybrand Awards were established to recognize the best manuscripts submitted to the National Association of Accountants.
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Lybrand was a man of good humor, genial temperament, and absolute dedication to the accounting profession.
Lybrand married Lenore Montgomery. They had no children.
