An ISU distinguished professor has been honored by the National Society of Accountants as Speaker of the Year. Neil Harl, distinguished professor of economics, received the award in August. Harl said he received the reward because of the seminars he has done for the society. “I do a lot of seminars on a a national basis,” Harl said. He said the decision of who becomes speaker of the year is “a little like course evaluations,” and that his ratings were good enough for the award. Roger McEowen, who co-wrote an agricultural law textbook with Harl, said Harl was very deserving of the honor. “He is at the top of the class. He is highly professional,” said McEowen, associate professor at Kansas State University. McEowen said he works with Harl on approximately five four-day seminars each year that are held across the country. “He is my mentor,” McEowen said. He added that it is “a tremendous honor and privilege” to work with Harl. McEowen said he also worked with Harl when he was in the graduate program at Iowa State. Harl was the head of his advisory committee for his master’s degree. Harl said he has been giving seminars outside of Iowa for 34 years, and they cover many different topics. Some of these include topics such as estate planning, business planning, income taxation and various farm policies he said.Teaching students still remains at the top of the list for Harl, who is in his second year of a five-year phased retirement. “Teaching is life’s greatest pleasure,” he said. “If it weren’t for that, I would be in full retirement.” He said he is teaching two classes this semester, one of which is an off-campus distance-education class and the agricultural law course he began in 1965 and has taught ever since. Harl said this course has changed immensely in that time. “We have gone from a set of reproduced notes to a 1000-page textbook,” he said. “In the first several years it didn’t cover much on problems of debt or distress. That has changed. Almost every area has changed since it was first published.” Harl said he is enjoying the beginning of his retirement. “It is a delightful way to be able to work and still be flexible, doing work where you want to, as the technology permits it,” Harl said. Though he tried hard to attend, Harl said he was unable to accept the award in person from the NSA in a ceremony in Puerto Rico. “I would have had to miss my Friday class,” he said. “I take my classes pretty seriously.”