The accounting department at Boise State University has long been known as a rigorous program with many outstanding professors. When I went through the accounting program in the early 2000s, there was one professor that stood out as the best teacher I’ve ever come across. Other students felt the same way. Professor Koeppen, or as I’d come to know him, “Dave” has a method of teaching that makes things stick, making the subject matter ingrain itself in your mind in a way that you don’t have to memorize, regurgitate, forget, and repeat. In a nutshell, the students referred to this phenomenon as “Even the dumb kids learn in Dave’s class.”
As I recollect, Dave’s teaching methods and tests primarily include number problems rather than multiple choice. Dave correctly pointed out to me that while multiple choice are easy to grade for the professor (which can be nice at times), no credit could be given for partial understandings and full credit is often given for blissful ignorance. Dave would spend the second half of class time discussing the theory of what the next lesson would involve (with lots of examples and analogies), and then he would work through a problem or two before assigning homework. At the next class, the first half of class time would be spent working through the homework that was assigned during the previous class to ensure everyone understood it. By the time the exams came, if you were struggling, you knew who to blame.
While listening to one of Dave’s lectures, I learned he was an avid outdoorsman, and consequently we struck up a conversation after class. It never influenced my grade (Dave was impassive to such things), but we started a friendship that has endured to today. Our families have traveled to Africa together and Dave and I have climbed numerous peaks throughout the northwest. We have spent many hours in the outdoors hiking and watching wildlife (hunting was the idea, but we never get around to pulling the trigger). The man is in amazing shape. I’ve seen Dave consistently pass 20 and 30 year-olds on the mountain and Dave isn’t 30. One of the greatest things about Dave is his great sense of humor and optimism. Whenever I get frustrated with a person or situation, I can remember Dave’s great words of wisdom “No one is entirely useless, they can always serve as a bad example.” He will be missed at Boise State University, but now it is time for his family, friends, and the outdoors – they need Dave too!
Written by former student, Kurt Folke, CPA