Sailing the Big Blue Boat: Rob Gray and the Blue Meanies

ABSTRACT This paper reflects on the late Professor Rob Gray’s significant and enduring contribution to the social and environmental accounting research literature and community. It does this through the medium of four selected papers that appeared in the journal Accounting, Auditing & Accountability Journal in which he published a paper in its inaugural issue and served for many years as an editorial advisory board member and guest editor. Through these lenses and the author’s long association with Rob, this paper presents insights into his scholarly philosophies and his messages to our discipline. Further, it offers selected insights into a founder of our literature as well as a hugely influential early leader of the social and environmental accounting movement.