Published on May 6, 2020 by William Nunnelley  
Broom Lowell

Accounting professor Lowell Broom retired in May after 14 years of teaching in Samford’s Brock School of Business. What were some of the highlights of his tenure?

“Number one is watching my students succeed,” Broom said this spring. “Accounting majors are hard-working students or they don’t survive to get into the courses that I teach. My students at Samford have been wonderful.

“Our majors have had the top first time passing rate on the CPA exam of any university in the state of Alabama almost every year since I’ve been at Samford and are heavily recruited by accounting firms and other businesses.

“What a pleasure it has been to get to know and work with so many wonderful young people who are just beginning their professional lives.”

Broom said he would miss the interaction with students and working with the wonderful group of Brock teaching professionals “who genuinely care about helping their students be the very best that they can be.” He said being a college professor for more than 40 years made him “one of the most blessed of all human beings.”

Broom has some plans for retirement, and they include traveling a bit more, increasing his church activities “and spending more time with my six grandchildren ages 15 years to 18 months, all of whom live in the Birmingham area.”

An avid golfer, he also plans to increase his time on the links. “I have a group of about 30 guys I play with, and only about three or four of us are still working. I’ve been getting beaten pretty badly because most of these retired guys have so much more time to play.

“I hope to change that.”

 
Samford is a leading Christian university offering undergraduate programs grounded in the liberal arts with an array of nationally recognized graduate and professional schools. Founded in 1841, Samford is the 87th-oldest institution of higher learning in the United States. Samford enrolls 6,101 students from 45 states, Puerto Rico and 16 countries in its 10 academic schools: arts, arts and sciences, business, divinity, education, health professions, law, nursing, pharmacy and public health. Samford fields 17 athletic teams that compete in the tradition-rich Southern Conference and ranks 6th nationally for its Graduation Success Rate among all NCAA Division I schools.