Faculty support accounts for success

As a Nebraska Wesleyan junior in 1968, business administration major Bob Chandler achieved what many graduates spend years trying to accomplish. Encouraged by accounting professor, Robert Kirk, Chandler took and passed all four parts of the Certified Public Accounting (CPA) exam on his first try.

To put that in context, today’s first-try pass rate for the CPA exam is anywhere between 10-20%. And most either have years of graduate school experience or at least a year spent focused on studying for the exam.

“I was thrilled,” Chandler recently said. “It was great to get a leg up on a future professional hurdle.”

But Chandler’s impressive feat wasn’t luck; he was well prepared. Professor Kirk held special CPA review sessions for a group of interested students. Sessions were held one evening a week in various off-campus locations. Six of Kirk’s students ended up taking the exam, and three of them passed at least two parts.

“Bob Kirk believed in all of his students,” Chandler said. “He was a different kind of professor. He had been out in the business world and could bridge the gap between theory and what happens in the real world of business.”

Some of Chandler’s fondest memories of Professor Kirk, like his review sessions, happened outside of the classroom. Kirk would organize trips for his students, and Chandler got to visit Denver and Kansas City with him.

“We had the opportunity to tour businesses in those cities,” he recalled. “It was good to look beyond academia to chat with managers in the real business world. We enjoyed the camaraderie of these trips as well. I remember even doing some skiing when we were in Colorado.”

Chandler had been interested in accounting since he was a sophomore in high school. And in the summer between his junior and senior years at NWU, he had an accounting internship at Northern Natural Gas Company in Omaha (where he would later spend most of his career).

“I always thought I’d go into accounting, but passing the exam reaffirmed my path,” he said. “I guess my hunch was right all along.”

Chandler’s hunch was right indeed; he did become a CPA. Upon graduation, he joined Arthur Andersen and Company in Omaha. He then returned to Northern Natural Gas Company (now a subsidiary of Berkshire Hathaway Energy), where he had interned as an NWU student. While there, he earned his master’s degree from the University of Nebraska—Omaha. He retired from Northern Natural Gas Company in 2008 after 36 years. His last position was director of accounting and reporting.

Chandler credits Kirk for giving him the opportunities that shaped his career path. “Bob Kirk was more than an accounting instructor,” he said. “He was a storyteller who enjoyed illustrating how accounting concepts are used in business not only for record-keeping, but also to provide analytical information critical to decision making. He gave us a feeling for what the reality of business was and encouraged us to look at our course work in terms of how that would impact our future careers.”

One day last year, Chandler received a letter listing NWU endowed funds that have been established by alumni and friends in honor of beloved faculty and staff. These named funds support scholarships, faculty development and more.

“I realized there were over 50 people honored on that list and Bob Kirk wasn’t on it,” he said. “That was a travesty.”

So Chandler established the Robert W. Kirk Endowed Scholarship in recognition of the “incredible impact he had on the careers of many of his students.”

His scholarship is twofold. It honors someone who has influenced countless NWU students while paving the way for future generations of NWU students.

As Chandler said, Robert Kirk was a storyteller. Now, through this scholarship, Chandler is telling Kirk’s story. The Robert W. Kirk Endowed Scholarship is empowering tomorrow’s students, just as he did for decades.