Press release #88
EAFIT will always remember Professor Bernard J. Hargadon,
the Institution's first teacher
On August 17, 1960, Professor Bernard J. Hargadon, Jr. became the protagonist of a milestone in education in this region: he offered the first class in the history of the institution. In a downtown office in the city of Medellin with a small group of students, the American professor started teaching Accounting Principles, a course for the School of Administration and Finance (EAF), the beginning of EAFIT.
Today, the University relives this memory, one of many brought about by this exceptional human being and professor of the highest caliber, to express its sorrow over his death. The first professor and honorary member of the Superior Council passed away on Tuesday, September 8, at his home in North Carolina (United States). He is remembered by the first EAFIT student cohorts as a simple, jovial man with a great heart who inspired several generations of accountants, administrators, and other professionals with his contributions to the areas of knowledge embodied in texts, such as Principios de contabilidad y Contabilidad de costos (‘Accounting Principles and Cost Accounting’).
Bernard G. Hargadon Jr. was born in Pennsylvania in 1927. He held an MBA in Accounting from the Drexel Institute of Technology (Philadelphia). He was an educational consultant for the Agency for International Development (AID) in Colombia. While in this country, he contributed his knowledge to the School of Administration and Finance, today known as EAFIT University; and the Faculty of Administration at the School of Mines. He was a professor of accounting at both institutions, as well as the Colombian Institute of Administration (INCOLDA) while in the United States, he served as the MK Group comptroller for Latin America.
To commemorate the six decades since the founding of the university, a livestreamed ceremony took place on May 4, 2020. Professor Hargadon sent a message in which he expressed how honored he was for having been part of the beginnings of EAFIT. “My immeasurable love for the people who founded the University, for the many men and women who have run it, and for the hundreds of fabulous students I taught there. I am one of the lucky people who, after 60 years, still witnesses its achievements.”
Hargadon arrived in Medellin to offer classes in the School of Mines at the National University of Colombia from the Drexel Institute of Technology in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and was invited to give a course in the new School of Administration and Finance (EAF). From that moment, the ties between the academic, the institution, and the first students of the then “School” were maintained and strengthened through the decades in which the teacher professed his undying love for Colombia, Medellin, and EAFIT University.
Today, the Superior Council, the Rector, directors, alumni, faculty, students, and employees of the university express their solidarity with his relatives and the many friends that Professor Hargadon left in Colombia and reassert that his legacy, his teachings, his integrity, his love for this land, and his presence will live forever within us, as well as his memory and his contributions to the history of the institution.
We pay a tribute of eternal gratitude to “Bernie”, as he was affectionately called by his close friends. His memory will remain with all those who were fortunate enough to have shared a part of their lives with him.
Sincerely,
Juan Luis Mejia Arango
Rector
Medellín, September 9th, 2020