Thomas Carnes: His office door always open

Berry accounting professor always willing to talk about grades, homework and sports.

When Thomas Carnes is not home with his wife and animals, he is at Berry College teaching accounting courses and helping students during his office hours.

“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 while he was a student in one of his classes. He spent a lot of time in Carnes’s office getting extra help, and afterward they would typically discuss sports.

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

Carnes's love for sports can be seen through his past work experience:

Carnes’s (Unofficial) Resume:

• Executive Sports Editor- The Tallahassee Democrat, where he worked for seven years.
• Sports Editor - Sunday Edition of the Boca Raton News, where he win the Top 10 Sunday Sports Section Award two years in a row.

Berry professor, Thomas Carnes

Photo courtesy of Berry College

Carnes switched 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, which kept him away from his wife. 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.

Even though sports are not part of Carnes’s career now, he still finds ways to be involved. He competes in computer baseball leagues, similar to fantasy baseball leagues, and follows three main sports teams. The Washington Redskins and the Florida State Seminoles are Carnes’s favorite football teams, while 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, Ph.D., a friend and colleague of Carnes for 15 years.

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

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.

Being an accounting professor at Berry College, Carnes usually works normal business hours and then spends his evenings with his wife. Carnes also spends extra time teaching and familiarizing himself with his students.

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

{A.G.Z.}