{"id":7273,"date":"2024-05-02T09:15:53","date_gmt":"2024-05-02T14:15:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.acu.edu\/coba\/?p=7273"},"modified":"2024-05-02T09:15:53","modified_gmt":"2024-05-02T14:15:53","slug":"building-lifelong-friendships-and-business-skills-the-legacy-of-bill-fowler","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.acu.edu\/coba\/2024\/05\/02\/building-lifelong-friendships-and-business-skills-the-legacy-of-bill-fowler\/","title":{"rendered":"Building Lifelong Friendships and Business Skills: The Legacy of Bill Fowler"},"content":{"rendered":"

written by special contributor Lance Fleming<\/em><\/p>\n

\"\"It shouldn\u2019t surprise anyone who knows him that Bill Fowler \u2013 who will retire in June after 40 years on the COBA faculty \u2013 will be teeing up a golf ball shortly after he turns out the lights one last time in his Mabee Business Building office.<\/span><\/p>\n

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.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI imagine I\u2019ll be out on the golf course pretty quickly,\u201d said Fowler, who admits to a \u201cfour-ish\u201d handicap he hopes to nudge down a little further in retirement. \u201cSome people would say I can\u2019t play much more than I already do, but I\u2019ll give it a shot.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Fowler\u2019s 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\u2019s taught is to make a lifetime friend. The other is his sense of humor, which keeps his conversations, classroom, and office enveloped in laughter.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI like to have fun,\u201d Fowler said. \u201cI 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\u2019s one of the things I\u2019ll miss. I\u2019ll miss class because I still love being with the students. But I\u2019ll miss hanging out in the halls and interacting with people.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

That\u2019s 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\u2019s thinking of a former student, or currently, the child of a former student. It\u2019s his way of reconnecting to those relationships.<\/span><\/p>\n

In a recruiting video posted to the COBA Facebook page in 2021, Fowler showed those grade books and said \u201cWhat\u2019s 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\u2019t just a student but a lifetime friend.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s the whole deal right there,\u201d Fowler said. \u201cI\u2019m not going to say I know or remember 100 percent of the names in those books or of the students I\u2019ve taught, but I can see probably 90 percent of the faces of the students I\u2019ve taught. And I know where most of them are living and working. That\u2019s been the greatest blessing of all; just being a snippet of their walk and maybe a continued part as they go forward. That\u2019s been the greatest part about being here.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/span>Dr. Brad Crisp (\u201993), who has served as Dean of COBA since May 2016, said the relationship part of Fowler\u2019s personality is the most important part of what makes him an excellent instructor.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"

photo courtesy of the ACU Prickly Pear<\/p><\/div>\n

\u00a0<\/span>\u201cWhen you do something for as many years as Bill has done it, he\u2019s got a whole host of students out there that are appreciative of him and grateful for him,\u201d Crisp said. \u201cI see him light up when accounting firms come back on campus, and he\u2019s talking to each of them. And if they were a student here, he wants to talk to them and find out what\u2019s going on in their lives and about their experience working at the firm they\u2019re representing. He has been <\/span>the<\/span><\/i> example of investing in lifetime relationships with students.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/span>What Fowler doesn\u2019t want, though, is a classroom full of people who don\u2019t know how to communicate or see the bigger picture. That\u2019s why fundamental business and communication skills are part of what he teaches.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/span>\u201cEarlier this semester in my graduate class, I gave an assignment one day to write a letter to a client explaining a difficult situation,\u201d Fowler said. \u201cSome of them asked me, \u2018Write a letter? I don\u2019t think you have to write letters anymore.\u2019 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.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/span>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.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cAt the end of every year, I usually tell the students in my classes that I don\u2019t care if they become an\"\" accountant or not; that\u2019s not my job to decide what they\u2019re going to become in life,\u201d Fowler said. \u201cI 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.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cIf that\u2019s becoming an accountant, that\u2019s great,\u201d he said. \u201cAnd if they become an accountant, I want them to be the best accountant possible. I care about that, and that\u2019s what we\u2019ve 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\u2019s glory. And if you come back and you\u2019re not an accountant, don\u2019t hang your head. Just let me know what you\u2019re doing, and how you\u2019re serving God and others.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Fowler\u2019s 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 A<\/span>rteriovenous Malformation (AVM) rupture that required surgery and substantial rest and recovery. One day in class, Fowler updated his students on his daughter\u2019s condition when he broke down.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI was trying to update them on the situation, but I wasn\u2019t doing very well,\u201d said Fowler, who got emotional recounting the story. \u201c<\/span>I paused because I was breaking up a little bit, and this quiet student with her soft voice asked, \u2018Mr. Fowler, can we pray for you?\u2019 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.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

And it\u2019s because it confirmed everything Fowler knew to be special about ACU.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThat day told me what\u2019s special about ACU,\u201d he said. \u201cI 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.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"\u201cI\u2019m thankful to have been in this place with students who care for me and vice versa,\u201d Fowler said. \u201cThat 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\u2019t 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\u2019ll miss those moments more than anything because those moments tell you everything about what ACU is and what it means to me.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Those moments \u2013 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 \u2013 made the decision to retire difficult for Fowler. But He knows it\u2019s time for his next chapter and looks forward to writing it.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve struggled with not being part of this world anymore,\u201d he said. \u201cIt was a hard decision, but if you\u2019re going to make space for the next chapter of your life, you\u2019ve got to make space. Truthfully, I don\u2019t 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\u2019t even know where we\u2019re going until we get in the car, and I\u2019m looking forward to that part of the next chapter of my life.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

written by special contributor Lance Fleming It shouldn\u2019t surprise anyone who knows him that Bill Fowler \u2013 who will retire in June after 40 years on the COBA faculty \u2013 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 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5020,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[818,2090,6633,184663,6627,154272,1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7273","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-academics","category-accounting","category-coba-faculty","category-faculty-testimonials","category-faith-infusion","category-macc","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.acu.edu\/coba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7273","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.acu.edu\/coba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.acu.edu\/coba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.acu.edu\/coba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5020"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.acu.edu\/coba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7273"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.acu.edu\/coba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7273\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7280,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.acu.edu\/coba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7273\/revisions\/7280"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.acu.edu\/coba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7273"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.acu.edu\/coba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7273"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.acu.edu\/coba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7273"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}