Professor of Accounting Heider College of Business |
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| More about me:
My wonderful wife Sue and I celebrate our 50th anniversary, in May of 2023, and she has been a constant source of love and support over those years - she knows me better than I do myself! We have three adult children - all Creighton graduates. They are a true blessing. And we have two grandsons, Isaac (age 12) and Oscar (almost 8). It is fascinating watching your child learn to parent. We are blessed to live on an acreage and constantly enjoy the changing seasons and the wildlife around us. I like to garden and do household upkeep, read whenever and whatever I can, collect first edition books, and fight the ravages of age through exercise. I am contemplating now what I am called to do when I enter the retirement phase of my journey. I hold the John Begley Endowed Chair in Accounting. I have been at Creighton, in one form or another (student, part time instructor in accounting, full time faculty member), almost continuously since September, 1967. The absolute joy of this position is being able to combine both of my professional passions - serving students and serving the accounting profession and the greater community. I have coordinated our required student run service program for decades. We have operated VITA (Volunteer Income tax Assistance) tax preparation clinics both on campus and on the Winnebago Indian reservation (in recent years) almost continuously since 1975. VITA provides IRS sanctioned free tax preparation services. For low-income taxpayers. Our clinics have grown to the point where in 2023 we served prepared over 1,000 tax returns for more than 500 taxpayers. Participation in our clinics is a requirement for our accounting majors as a service-learning component in their income tax course. Students are required to reflect on their service, and through that process they deepen their understanding of the essence of the Jesuit message of finding God in all things and being in service to those you encounter. My own spirituality has been influenced heavily, as you might expect, by the Jesuit tradition. I have found Fr. Tony deMello's works to be very helpful, as well as Albert Nolan’s, and have read some of Thich Nhat Hanh’s books and Richard Rohr’s Falling Upward. |
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Writing these reflections: I am humbled by the opportunity to share my reflections with you through this vehicle. I start every class with a prayer or reflection, and so I am comfortable sharing where I am with my own spirituality. But to be on-line, for the whole world to access, is incredible. I have been involved with this ministry since 1999. I approach these reflections as a sharing of daily life. I don't try to be anything more than who I am and where I am at this point of my journey, and how the readings resonate with me when I prepare them. And so, I think what I am doing is sharing with you how I hear God's word - you will hear it differently than I, but how I have interpreted the message I receive may in some way help you. If it does, then I think that is God's grace working through us, and this is why I am humbled by this whole experience.
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| Other links to me:
e-mail: tpurcell@creighton.edu
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