Associate professor of accounting Ron Worsham believes that persistent improvements can push the boundaries of what one originally thinks is possible. Worsham has seen the fruits of dedicated labor manifest over and over again in his 30 years at the BYU Marriott School of Business—both in himself and in his students.
“You’re constantly evolving—you’re growing—and you never know how far you can go,” Worsham says. “Back when I was a student here, I never would have thought that I’d be able to do some of the things that I do now.”
While he was a student at BYU, Worsham worked with several School of Accountancy (SOA) faculty as a research assistant. “Two of them mentioned I might think about getting a PhD—they thought that I might be good at it,” he says. “But at the time, I had my heart set on graduating with a master’s degree and going out to get some work experience.”
So after graduating, Worsham moved to Dallas, became a certified public accountant, and worked in tax. After working for two years, he still had the idea of earning a PhD and becoming a professor. He considered his options for several months before speaking with his wife about it. The following year, Worsham began pursuing a PhD at the University of Florida’s Warrington College of Business.
After earning his PhD, Worsham returned to BYU Marriott in 1994—this time as a faculty member. He was excited to work with his former mentors and to inspire students the way his now-colleagues had inspired him. “My goal was to give students the same opportunity my professors gave me—which was to train me at a level that allowed me to go out and excel and be successful in the world,” Worsham says. “That’s been my passion and what drove me to create those same opportunities that others did for me.”
Though the faculty he learned from as a student and worked with in his early career are no longer at BYU Marriott, he continues to use and build upon the knowledge they taught. “It’s been really energizing for me, always having something new to learn,” Worsham says. “In tax there’s always something changing, and I’ve enjoyed that intellectual aspect of it.”
In 2007 Worsham began working on a textbook with several colleagues in tax education, including three SOA faculty. “That is currently the leading tax textbook in the country,” Worsham says. Through this textbook, Worsham has been able to help students he doesn’t directly teach as they learn the skills to be successful.
Watching students grow and develop has been a highlight for Worsham during his career. While attending a conference for accounting professors, Worsham ran into a dozen of his former students—now faculty themselves for universities around the country. “It was a profound experience, seeing them all together in one place, being able to interact with them, and knowing that once upon a time they were my students,” Worsham says. “Kind of a summary, if you will, of what I’ve done over the years.”
Worsham is retiring from BYU Marriott at the end of spring 2024 semester, and after three decades of helping to provide students with the education and connections they need to progress, his career is a lot to summarize—but it didn’t start out that way. “We all have to begin somewhere,” he says. “We’re all in a state of growth, and we start not knowing a whole lot about a particular thing—but if we’re persistent, we can keep growing day by day.”
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Written by Melissa Een