Dr. Robert Darville came to Shorter University in 1985 as Assistant Professor of Accounting. Dr. Darville began his career in 1976 as Assistant Professor of Accounting at Columbus State University (Columbus, GA), having graduated from Southwest Mississippi Community College in 1973, Millsaps College (Jackson, MS) with a BA in Accounting and the MBA, with a concentration in Accounting, from Mississippi State University in 1976. Dr. Darville served Louisiana College as Assistant Professor of Accounting (1982-1983) and Highlands Baptist Church as Church Administrator and Minister of Education (1983-1984) prior to coming to Shorter University. He is an ordained Southern Baptist minister and holds the CPA certification (GA).
Dr. Darville currently serves Shorter University as Assistant Vice President of Business Community Relations and as a tenured full professor, while holding the Sewell Chair of Business Ethics. Dr. Darville also served as Dean, Ledbetter College of Business from 2007 to 2013. He completed his Ph.D. at Georgia State University in 1999. His program of study consisted with two areas of concentration: Higher Education and Accounting. Dr. Darville’s dissertation research,“Budgeting Policies and Procedures in a Liberal Arts College: The Impact of Culture,” focused on how the culture of a liberal arts institution affected the budgeting policy and procedures at that type of institution.
Dr. Darville was selected to attend the 2009 Harvard Institutes for Higher Education Program in Management Leadership in Education at Harvard University. He was awarded the 2012 Distinguished Alumni of the Year for Southwest Mississippi Community College. Active in the Rome/Floyd County community, Dr. Darville was selected as a participant for Leadership Rome XXXI program for 2013. He is a member of the Chamber of Commerce for the Rome/Floyd County and serves on the Governmental Affairs Committee, the Confluence Committee, and others. A member of Three Rivers Community Church, Dr. Darville also served Fellowship Baptist Church as a Bible Study teacher, Deacon, Chairman of Deacons, and as a volunteer Church Administrator. He has led church retreats, taught Bible studies at Shorter, filled the pulpit for pastors in their absence, and participated in a mission trip to Australia.
Professionally, Dr. Darville holds memberships in the American Institute of CPAs, Georgia Society of CPAs, American Accounting Association, Association for the Study of Higher Education, and the Christian Business Faculty Association. He has presented at the Mid-Atlantic AAA meeting in 1993, chaired sessions at the Southeast AAA meeting in 2008, authored a paper (unpublished) on “A State and Institutional Response to the 150-Hour Requirement for Accounting Students” in 1993/94. Dr. Darville serves as a reviewer for annual conference papers and presentations for the ASHE, and been guest speaker for Rotary Club of Rome-Seven Hills on the Obama stimulus package in Spring 2009. In addition, Dr. Darville has served as a consultant for local and national companies in the area of budgeting and cost prediction.
Although he has served primarily teaching institutions, his research and teaching interest is in the Cost/Managerial Accounting arena. Secondarily, his PhD work in higher education serves as a backdrop for research in governance and students. Dr. Darville’s administrative strengths of growing and rebuilding programs are the result of his visionary and people-oriented personality. Enabling others to achieve is his focus.
Dr. Darville is married to Gayla McKenzie Darville and they have two children, Sarah and Stephen. He is an avid Mississippi State Bulldog and University of Tennessee Volunteer fan. Other interests include travel, antiquing, theatre, and music.
“Teaching at Shorter allows me the freedom to be who I am, a Christian who happens to teach Accounting. For me, being an academic and a Christian are not mutually exclusive events, but rather two events that stretch me and force me to be the best I can be because not only do I represent Shorter, but I represent Christ. Students are the life-blood of any institution, but they are also my life-blood. I draw such strength and energy from them. Shorter has always prided itself on providing faculty and students the opportunity to develop a friendship that extends beyond the classroom and continues for years to come. To know that I have impacted my students not only in their career choice, but also in life lessons brings me great joy.”