One of Berry's many loving professors -- Tommy Carnes

Carnes does good in small ways.

Thomas Carnes is a warm-hearted professor who loves to do good.

He lives on 10 acres with his wife and many abandoned dogs and cats. When Carnes is not at home, he is on the Berry campus teaching accounting and helping students during his office house.

Thomas Carnes
Photo courtesy of Berry College

“He makes an extra effort to help his students understand the material,” said Eli Sherrill, a former student of Carnes. “He cares about you as a student and a person.”

Sherrill formed a friendship with Carnes because of the time he spent in Carnes’s office for help in his class. After Carnes helped Sherrill with the work for class, they would usually discuss sports.

“We have a connection there of sorts,” said Sherrill.

A love of sports
Carnes's love for sports has been shown through his past work experience. He was the executive sports editor at The Tallahassee (Fla.) Democrat newspaper for approximately seven years before coming to Berry College. Carnes also served as sports editor for the Sunday Edition of the Boca Raton News. During his employment, Carnes helped the paper earn the Top 10 Sunday Sports Section Award two years in a row.

Carnes love for sports did not end when he left The Tallahassee Democrat. He now competes in computer baseball leagues, similar to fantasy baseball leagues, and follows three main sports teams. While the Washington Redskins and the Florida State Seminoles are Carnes’s favorite football teams, the Atlanta Braves have become his favorite baseball team since moving to Rome. He did not follow much baseball while in Florida, but after hearing Skip Caray and Pete Van Wieren on the Atlanta Braves Radio Network, he began to closely follow the team.

“[Carnes] does believe that the opening day of baseball should be a national holiday,” said Timothy Biggart, a friend and colleague of Carnes for 15 years and also a professor at Berry.

Biggart and his wife have developed a close friendship with Carnes and his wife, Sandy, over the years. They attend social events together and eat dinner on occasion. However, their friendship extends beyond social activities.

“I helped him put together the [dog] kennels,” said Biggart.

Their friendship began shortly after enrolling in the doctorate program of accounting at Florida State University. The program took them both five years to complete. On completion of the program, they were hired by Berry College to be associate professors of accounting and finance.

Work and play
Since being at Berry, they have completed research together and have published four articles pertaining to their research. The most recent article published, “Variances, Incentives and SFAS 151,” was printed in the September 2007 edition of The CPA Journal. The article deals with accounting information for certified public accountants.

Carnes became interested in accounting and finance through a relative and ultimately made the switch in careers in order to work normal business hours. As an editor, he would typically work Tuesday through Saturday night from the hours of two until midnight. These hours kept Carnes away from his wife because she did not work the same hours.

“It was unpleasant being separated from my wife,” Carnes said.

He was also aware that the newspaper industry was declining. Television allowed newspaper readers to gather their news from broadcasts instead of printed newspapers. Carnes said that the only reason he still reads the newspaper is for the local news and the comics.

Many students are thankful of Carnes' career change

“Even a year and a half later, he still remembers my name,” said Sherrill.

{L. W.}