written by special contributor Lance Fleming
It shouldn’t surprise anyone who knows him that Bill Fowler – who will retire in June after 40 years on the COBA faculty – will be teeing up a golf ball shortly after he turns out the lights one last time in his Mabee Business Building office.
Since he joined the COBA faculty as a professor of Accounting, Fowler was always easy to find. He was either at work, at home, at church, or on the golf course. And it was likely the latter place where he could be found, more often than not.
“I imagine I’ll be out on the golf course pretty quickly,” said Fowler, who admits to a “four-ish” handicap he hopes to nudge down a little further in retirement. “Some people would say I can’t play much more than I already do, but I’ll give it a shot.”
Fowler’s love of golf is one of the first things that comes up among his colleagues when asked about his time at ACU and how difficult it will be to replace a man whose desire for every student he’s taught is to make a lifetime friend. The other is his sense of humor, which keeps his conversations, classroom, and office enveloped in laughter.
“I like to have fun,” Fowler said. “I have enjoyed harassing students and the people up and down the hallways in our building. We have a good time, which surprises some people. That’s one of the things I’ll miss. I’ll miss class because I still love being with the students. But I’ll miss hanging out in the halls and interacting with people.”
That’s because Fowler is a relationship-builder. He has kept hand-written grade books from his first 15 or
20 years on the ACU faculty and will refer to them when he’s thinking of a former student, or currently, the child of a former student. It’s his way of reconnecting to those relationships.
In a recruiting video posted to the COBA Facebook page in 2021, Fowler showed those grade books and said “What’s important to me about these books is not the grades, but these are my friends from years ago. As you come, we hope that you aren’t just a student but a lifetime friend.”
“That’s the whole deal right there,” Fowler said. “I’m not going to say I know or remember 100 percent of the names in those books or of the students I’ve taught, but I can see probably 90 percent of the faces of the students I’ve taught. And I know where most of them are living and working. That’s been the greatest blessing of all; just being a snippet of their walk and maybe a continued part as they go forward. That’s been the greatest part about being here.”
Dr. Brad Crisp (’93), who has served as Dean of COBA since May 2016, said the relationship part of Fowler’s personality is the most important part of what makes him an excellent instructor.
photo courtesy of the ACU Prickly Pear
“When you do something for as many years as Bill has done it, he’s got a whole host of students out there that are appreciative of him and grateful for him,” Crisp said. “I see him light up when accounting firms come back on campus, and he’s talking to each of them. And if they were a student here, he wants to talk to them and find out what’s going on in their lives and about their experience working at the firm they’re representing. He has been the example of investing in lifetime relationships with students.”
What Fowler doesn’t want, though, is a classroom full of people who don’t know how to communicate or see the bigger picture. That’s why fundamental business and communication skills are part of what he teaches.
“Earlier this semester in my graduate class, I gave an assignment one day to write a letter to a client explaining a difficult situation,” Fowler said. “Some of them asked me, ‘Write a letter? I don’t think you have to write letters anymore.’ But the point was, I wanted them to think about how to communicate an idea to someone who needs to understand the direction. The ability to explain situations is what separates people as they go forward. The people that can see the big picture and have the ability to communicate will make an impact on others.”
The impact Fowler has made on his students over the last 40 years is because they know he cares more about them as people than as future accountants.
“At the end of every year, I usually tell the students in my classes that I don’t care if they become an
accountant or not; that’s not my job to decide what they’re going to become in life,” Fowler said. “I want them to have learned about who they are and to take whatever that is and whatever that means and use their talents to serve God and others.
“If that’s becoming an accountant, that’s great,” he said. “And if they become an accountant, I want them to be the best accountant possible. I care about that, and that’s what we’ve talked about. But some of my accounting students are now funeral home directors, teachers, or stay-at-home parents, and people have no idea how smart they are as accountants. But the thing I want every student to do is to use their talent and do everything for God’s glory. And if you come back and you’re not an accountant, don’t hang your head. Just let me know what you’re doing, and how you’re serving God and others.”
Fowler’s ability to connect with his students was never more evident than during one five-minute period in one of his classes in the fall of 2014. Earlier that summer, one of his daughters suffered an Arteriovenous Malformation (AVM) rupture that required surgery and substantial rest and recovery. One day in class, Fowler updated his students on his daughter’s condition when he broke down.
“I was trying to update them on the situation, but I wasn’t doing very well,” said Fowler, who got emotional recounting the story. “I paused because I was breaking up a little bit, and this quiet student with her soft voice asked, ‘Mr. Fowler, can we pray for you?’ I was blubbering and said that would be OK, so the students gathered around me and she led the prayer, and it was awesome. If I can point to a five-minute segment out of the 40 years here at ACU, that would be near the top.”
And it’s because it confirmed everything Fowler knew to be special about ACU.
“That day told me what’s special about ACU,” he said. “I feel comfortable sharing part of my life and students feel comfortable enough to ask if they can pray for you in that moment, and then surround you and pray for you.
“I’m thankful to have been in this place with students who care for me and vice versa,” Fowler said. “That day there was a sense of sharing something with those kids and receiving the peace of Christ in return. I was grateful for the moment. I don’t remember the exact words, but what she said and prayed for was what we needed, and it felt comfortable and I was grateful that it provided a sense of peace. I’ll miss those moments more than anything because those moments tell you everything about what ACU is and what it means to me.”
Those moments – the ones in the classroom, the ones he shares with students during conference time, the ones he enjoys with colleagues down the hallway or in the Mabee Business Building – made the decision to retire difficult for Fowler. But He knows it’s time for his next chapter and looks forward to writing it.
“I’ve struggled with not being part of this world anymore,” he said. “It was a hard decision, but if you’re going to make space for the next chapter of your life, you’ve got to make space. Truthfully, I don’t know what the next chapter holds for me. I will play a lot of golf, and my wife and I will travel. But I don’t even know where we’re going until we get in the car, and I’m looking forward to that part of the next chapter of my life.”