Story and photos by
Alycia C. Zuehlke

Brent Stolle ’98 swore he would never be an accountant. Brent had grown up watching his father, Carlton D. Stolle ’65, teach accounting at Texas A&M, so his decision to attend Rice for his undergraduate degree was a calculated step outside Carlton’s footprints.

But while learning to spread his wings, Brent discovered without any prompting from Carlton that maroon blood runs deep. In 1998 Brent became the second in his family to earn his MBA in accounting from A&M and the first to get his Aggie Ring. Brent’s ring day was especially important to the Stolle family because Carlton, after waiting for more than 32 years, also received his ring. The Aggie bond strengthened an already close relationship between father and son.

Brent’s conversion to Aggie accounting — he’s now a manager at PricewaterhouseCoopers’s Austin office — is just one example of Carlton’s influence on students. Carlton Stolle’s 40-year career has spanned decades of change and growth within the university. His work is a testimony to the loyalty and quality of student that Texas A&M inspires.

“I think I’ve taught over 10,000 students over the years,” Stolle says. “The classroom is my therapy.”

Life was different when Stolle first set foot on Texas A&M’s soil in 1964, with only 10,000 students attending each year. “Most of the professors still went by the first name of ‘Colonel,’” Stolle laughingly recalls.

Stolle began life as the only child of two farmers living near the west Texas town of Post, 40 miles outside Lubbock. When he was five, his father moved the family to Corpus Christi to pursue better economic opportunities in the construction industry. Stolle stayed there until attending college at Texas Lutheran University, and in 1963, he married his wife, Sandra. The following year he graduated with a BBA in accounting, and decided to pursue an MBA at Texas A&M.

Stolle finished his MBA in accounting in 1965 and, with encouragement from mentors Dean John Pearson and retired Col. Jack Coleman, Stolle stayed on a year to teach.

That year stretched into 40 as Stolle’s love of students grew. Stolle was only the second doctoral student to receive his PhD in accounting from A&M, in 1973, after years of teaching full-time and doing his doctoral work in increments.

Stolle says that the lives of his students fascinate him. He has taught some exceptional go-getters as well as some “not so exceptional” students during college who, he says, have since blossomed into leading men and women in the business world. “The aging process makes everyone a lot smarter and more practical,” Stolle says.

Stolle describes himself as a nurturing person who believes in teaching his students practical application and useful life lessons pertaining to accounting. And his students seem to love that quality about him.

John H. Speer ’71, a 2004 Mays Outstanding Alumni honoree who recently established a faculty fellowship in Stolle’s name, recalls a day in early November 1972 when Stolle stopped him in the hall and asked if he had sat for the CPA exam yet. Stolle suggested Speer try it for practice, even if that meant he was encouraging Speer to “practice failure.” Fired up, Speer promised Stolle he would pass the CPA on his first try.

That quiet challenge pushed Speer to pass his CPA exam on the first try in May 1973 — a feat accomplished by no other A&M student that year.

“If he hadn’t pushed me to try, I probably would have never tried as hard as I did,” says Speer. “He is the ultimate teacher. I learned from him that failure is a necessary ingredient to success.”

Kristina King, a former student in Stolle’s financial reporting class who also serves as his current teaching assistant, was recruiting students to join the five-year Professional Program while taking Stolle’s class. She did well in the class, making high A’s on all exams but her third. When Stolle passed back that exam, King found a note beside her grade of B, commenting that “recruiting was hurting her grades.” In a class of 60 students, King was astonished that Stolle would take the time to make note of one student’s 10-point grade difference and why her grades were lower.

“He knows everyone’s name in class and he’s looked upon as a counselor,” King says. “This is a professor that students invite to their weddings.”

Accounting department head Jim Benjamin says that Stolle inspires students to succeed. Benjamin describes him as down-to-earth, but dignified.

“He’s humble and matter-of-fact and dedicated to students,” Benjamin says. “He is one of the easiest people to work with. I have a lot of respect for him and I’m amazed that his enthusiasm for his job hasn’t changed in the 30 years I have known him.”

Benjamin became department head in 1982, when the two began working more closely together. Stolle, an inaugural holder of the Melbern Glassock University Professorship for Undergraduate Teaching Excellence who has also been recognized by the Association of Former Students for teaching and student relations , now wears the title of assistant department head. His main responsibilities today include managing the department’s student workers and organizing curriculum scheduling, but his focus remains tightly on teaching.

“There’s something about teaching 20-year-olds,” Stolle says, smiling when asked about the source of his enthusiasm. “The student energy level is infectious.”