March 18, 2024

It’s never been about the money

After 11 years of teaching business at USU Eastern, it has never been about the money for David Cassidy. He is retiring this year and shares some of his favorite memories about USU Eastern and the favorite classes he has taught.

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This archived article was written by: Ashley Stilson

After 11 years of teaching business at USU Eastern, it has never been about the money for David Cassidy. He is retiring this year and shares some of his favorite memories about USU Eastern and the favorite classes he has taught.
“In all of my working life…I’ve never had a day when I didn’t want to get up and go to work,” Cassidy says. “Some days are better than others, but I think as you get older, you get some perspective.” After working in an executive position in a large corporation in Indiana, Cassidy says he had wanted to teach for a long time. “What brought me here was the desire to teach and [USU Eastern] was the perfect school as far as I was concerned.” Instead of publishing or researching, Cassidy simply teaches classes, just like he wanted.
The details worked out for him to begin a marketing position at the college and then continue to teaching full time as a professor. Cassidy loves the junior college attitude that accompanies USU Eastern. “Some of my best memories are some of the classes I’ve taught, some of the students I’ve had.”
With 29 years of experience in the field of business, Cassidy wanted to give students “a background in the technical part of business.” He continues to describe his favorite classes to teach: “I could tell almost from the time I met those students, that they were going to be successful in what they did in business.” He has been impressed by the quality of students that have come through his classes, and believes that he has accomplished most of the goals that he brought to USU Eastern, including teaching students how “big and wild and wide the business world is.”
Cassidy began studying chemical engineering, but switched to focus on accounting. After being drafted into the military during the Vietnam War, he decided to major in business administration. He has traveled to all 50 states and has been to 21 foreign countries. “Out of every place I’ve been,” Cassidy mentions, “I love Italy: the food, the people, the history; it’s pretty hard to beat Italy.”
Some of Cassidy’s hobbies include building and collecting antique guns and working on muscle cars. “I’ve got a shop outside my house…I’ve got all the machine tools in it and I love doing that.” He also enjoys working with the paleontology and archeology group at the USU Eastern Prehistoric Museum. He has also enjoyed teaching some different classes throughout the community.
“Working with the students has been the most fun,” Cassidy recalls. His favorite thing to teach is the workings and mechanics of small business management and the computer program Microsoft Excel. “At the school here, just working with the other people on campus, both the faculty and staff, I’ve enjoyed the association.” He enjoys doing crossword puzzles in the morning to get ready to teach.
“A teacher is just a frustrated actor,“ Cassidy says. Although there are many great things that Cassidy can name about teaching, he believes the greatest thing about teaching is being able to start over again. “If I didn’t do so well this semester…I get to start over next semester.” When he retires, Cassidy is prepared to accept the difference. “It’s going be a little interesting. I’ll still get up when I get up; I’ll do the things that I’ll do.”
“I think I’ve really done what I’ve wanted to do in teaching,” Cassidy comments. “I’ve done what I’ve wanted to do here. And moving on, I [have] got four or five years worth of projects to finish.” He supports his wife in earning her family history degree at Brigham Young University and hopes to serve an LDS mission with her. With her degree and his teaching experience, Cassidy finishes, “We’ve got to fit in someplace.”