Recognizing the career of professor Service, Brock School of Business renamed its Graduate Teaching Award to the “Dr. Robert W. (Bill) Service Graduate Teaching Award.” This award is given to a full-time member of the Brock School of Business faculty who demonstrates excellence in graduate teaching. In addition to the award, an endowment has been established in his name and will support an annual faculty stipend.

 

Service has served on the Brock School of Business faculty since 1993. During his time at Samford, he was named a winner of the John H. Buchanan Award for Excellence in Classroom Teaching. He was a frequent consultant in the business community and impactful teacher at the undergraduate and graduate levels. Service taught extensively internationally and brought those experiences back to his classes at Brock School of Business. Paired with his successful business and leadership career prior to academia, Service was able to effectively bridge the gap from the classroom to the “real world.” In addition to excellence in teaching, Dr. Service was a successful scholar and mentor to students throughout his time at Samford. Service’s retirement will be effective at the end of the spring 2021 semester.

 

Service said, “I love students and delight in their life’s achievements. I thank them for the richness they added to my (and my wife Jan’s) life. Without those relationship our lives would not have been so very fulfilling. Although I will miss being around them daily, Jan and I are forever blessed to be linked to so many through Samford.”