Terry Unruh was recruited to play baseball at ORU but was blessed to find his wife and his life calling. After completing his MBA at ORU followed by a brief career in industry as a cost accountant and internal auditor, an out-of-the-blue opportunity came to test the waters of academia in a small private university in Kansas as a replacement for a faculty member who was on sabbatical. There he was able to merge the two passions of his life - teaching and athletics. “Classes were small and people wore a lot of hats. I taught a variety of accounting courses, coached the baseball team, kept score at basketball games, worked the ticket office at football games, sponsored the campus chapter of FCA, and my wife (Kim) and I co-sponsored the cheerleaders.”
Coming back to teach at ORU has been an incredibly rewarding experience as Terry has worked alongside his best friend, Ray Gregg, since 1980. “No one is better at explaining accounting than Ray. I was a student in his very first class at ORU and I have continued to learn from him throughout my professional career.”
“I teach upper division accounting courses and the preparation, grading, teaching, assisting students in my office and at home on the phone fills up most of my days,” said Unruh. He also spends a great amount of time assisting students to obtain accounting internships while at ORU and selecting career opportunities upon graduation.
In addition to his class schedule, Terry has served as the NCAA Faculty Athletics Representative for ORU since 1996. Although the workload can be hectic at times, Unruh does not see himself anywhere but at ORU. In fact, two of his favorite things about ORU are “the wonderful students and the extremely dedicated faculty colleagues.”