Memorial Service Planned For Professor Victor Pastena

BUFFALO, N.Y. -- A memorial service will be held at 7 p.m. Sept. 2 in UB's Newman Center chapel on Frontier Road on the North Campus for Victor S. Pastena, 52, Clifford C. Furnas Professor of Accounting and chair of the Department of Accounting and Law in the UB School of Management. Pastena died unexpectedly July 20 in Mount Sinai Hospital in New York City while awaiting a liver transplant.

Pastena, of Williamsville, began his career at UB in 1990 after serving nine years as professor of accounting at Baruch College in New York City, where he received the college's Presidential Award for Teaching Excellence. He taught at the undergraduate, MBA and doctoral levels in the School of Management and also taught in the school's executive programs in China, Singapore and Hungary.

In 1993, he served as chair of the subcommittee that established the school's Executive MBA program and he was a member of the full-time MBA program's Taskforce 2000 subcommittee.

Pastena was instrumental in establishing the school's Accounting and Law Fund to support departmental activities and he was founding editor of the department's alumni newsletter. His research specialties included the accounting and auditing releases of the Securities and Exchange Commission, oil and gas accounting, financial contracting, bond refinancing and mergers. He was published in the top journals of the field, including the Journal of Accounting Research and Journal of Accounting and Economics, and was on the editorial board of the Journal of Accounting and Public Policy and the Journal of Quality Science at the time of his death.

A certified public accountant, Pastena was a member of the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants, the New York State Society of Certified Public Accountants, the American Accounting Association and the American Finance Association.

He is survived by his wife, Laurie, and son, Richard, both of Williamsville. Contributions in Pastena's memory may be made to either the University at Buffalo Foundation/Victor Pastena Memorial Fund or the American Liver Foundation.