The Fastest Math Whiz in Mrs. Yount's Fourth Grade Class - by Bob Kaufman

I was the fastest math whiz in Mrs. Yount's 4th grade class…well…at least I wanted to be.

Portola Elementary School, circa 1959
Fourth Avenue and Nevada Street
Photo courtesy of Carrie Neely

It was most likely early March 1958, when winter's hold on our lives in the high Sierras had not completely thawed.  Dirty crusted snow still covered the shadier spots near the two-story grammar school atop the hill on the corner of Fourth Avenue and Nevada Streets. Mrs. Yount chose such a day to test our math skills with a contest.

Mrs. Yount's classroom was strategically located in the north wing of the building, at the top of the stairs that led down to the library and out to the cafeteria. We could get head start on everyone else when the lunch bell rang. Ah, the memories I have of the cafeteria...but that's another story.

I wonder if it was before or after lunch when we had our contest.... That could have had something to do with the outcome.

Two by two, all nineteen of us, twelve boys and seven girls, went to the chalkboard and raced to complete a problem comprised of several steps using the basic arithmetic functions. The first one to put down his chalk and turn around to face the class - and to complete the problem correctly - was the winner. I’m not certain how Mrs. Yount handled the odd number, but it was the girls who were odd, not the boys.

One by one, classmates were eliminated until only two remained. Those two finalists faced off with the final problem to determine the fastest math whiz in the class.

That crisp, almost spring morning, I competed against Darrell McMurphy.  On the cue from Mrs. Yount, I whipped around and raced lickety-split through the calculations, carrying and borrowing numbers here and there, just as we had been taught.  In only a few seconds, about 19 ½, I’d guess, I dropped my chalk in the tray and turned around a split second ahead of Darrell. I WAS SO EXCITED!

My last picture of Darrell McMurphy
Probably 5th or 6th Grade

Then…as Mrs. Yount walked through each step in the problem…my heart sank. Suddenly I saw, as did all my classmates, that I had made a slight miscalculation.  I was off by one digit!  Although I was a split second quicker, Darrell got it right and won the contest.

After 60 years it is doubtful that my memory of the event is accurate.  So, whether or not it actually happened this way, this is how I choose to remember it.  I would like to believe that my race with Darrell was for the class championship and that I was a close second to the winner, but it probably wasn't. Darrell eventually had to face Margy Lee.  When it comes to a contest of brains, NOBODY BEATS MARGY LEE……..EVER!

Memories of the old grammar school on the hill are sweet, although I am certain we didn’t feel that way at the time. We could not wait for school to end so we could catch chipmunks in the woods and crawdads in the river, or just ride our bikes on dusty mountain roads every day - the boys did anyway. I have no clue what those seven girls did during the summer. A few years later, I started paying attention.  I remember little else about fourth grade, but I will never forget how I suffered humiliation when I lost to Darrell McMurphy…then a little later, he was smoked at the blackboard by Margy Lee, the Fastest Math Whiz in Mrs. Yount's 4th grade class!

Mrs. Angwin's 3rd Grade Class.
(I do not have the picture of the 4th grade so this will have to do.)
Top row: Stan Ghidossi, Mona Guerra, Jackie Hickock, Glenn Hull, Margy Lee, Frank Powell, Linda Edgar.
Middle row: Jerry Babcock, Kim Rees, Bob Hurd, Mrs. Angwin, Ernie Gonzales, Judy Servia, Les Martin.
Bottom Row: Rodney Reid, Pete Thill, Darrell McMurphy, Mr. Matthews (Principal), Cheryl Conant, Bob Kaufman, Ken Knox.

Originally, that was the end of the story. I had intended it to be a nostalgic and somewhat creative look back at a single spark of memory from a much more innocent time. But recently I came upon the rest of the story and my purpose changed.

Three years after our contest at the blackboard, Darrell moved away from the mountains down into the valley and I never saw him again.  For almost sixty years I knew nothing of what became of him. Then one day, March 16 this year (2018) to be exact, I learned that Jay Darrell McMurphy was killed by small arms fire in the Thua Thien Province, South Vietnam, March 16, 1968, fifty years earlier to the day, and just ten years after our competition at the blackboard. He was survived by his young bride who was six months pregnant with their only child.

On March 16, 1968, I walked the campus at BYU. My greatest fear was in trying to muster the courage to ask a cute blonde, whom I had first noticed six months earlier, for a date. Darrell, on the other hand, patrolled the jungles of South Vietnam as the point man for his squad, where gun battles with the enemy and resulting casualties had been occurring regularly for more than a week. On the Virtual Vietnam memorial, Michael O’Connell wrote:

The Wall of Faces entry for Jay Darrell McMurphy, Sponsored by the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Fund

The Virtual Wall, Vietnam Veterans Memorial

HonorStates.org

“On March 16, 1968, my platoon led Charlie Company, down a jungle trail west of the new fire base Birmingham. Jay walked point and John Ahern walked his slack. My squad was second in line. Minutes after came a loud roar as AK-47 fire broke out. My platoon rushed forward; it was clear we had casualties. After we hit the ground, one of our squads moved to the left and M-60 fire broke out. The NVA had paid a price, but so had we. Both Jay and John were dead. I remember them both as good people and gallant soldiers. Rest in peace, pointman.”

During my search, I met and spoke with Lon Reed who had been Jay's friend after he moved from Portola (I always knew him by Darrell, but he went by Jay afterward). He spoke very highly of his dear friend, and posted this remembrance on the virtual wall 8/23/16 - "It has been 48 years since you left our world while fighting in Vietnam and your friends and family miss you very much. What a shame to lose a fine man like you, Darrell, but we grieve your loss and respect you for your service to our country, the United States of America. I hope you are at peace my friend and know you are always in our hearts. I will be visiting Droast in Hawaii next year and we will hold up a glass to you."

I also learned of Darrell's daughter, Kimberly McMurphy (Coates), who was yet unborn when Darrell perished at war. She posted under the title "The Father I never knew": "This is my father...he was killed 3 months before my mom gave birth to me. I will forever only know him by photos and letters he wrote home.  I am his only offspring and live my life knowing that he would be so proud of me."

Michael O'Connell called Darrell a "gallant soldier." I Googled “gallant” and found it quite in harmony with a phrase I love from scripture: “steadfast and immovable”. After conversing recently with one of his closest friends, and after reading the remembrances of his comrades, those who knew him in peacetime and in war, after he moved from the mountains, I can safely say: “In the face of fear and mortal danger, Jay Darrell McMurphy was steadfast and immovable in performing his sworn duty.” Darrell was truly a gallant soldier, and my classmate whom I will never forget. "Rest in peace, Pointman."

Mrs. Freeman's 1st Grade Class.
Top row: unknown, Ken Knox, Cheryl Conant, Andy Parsons, Pete Thill, Stan Ghidossi, Mike Nally.
2nd row: Darrell McMurphy, Bob Kaufman, Mona Guerra, Mrs. Freeman, Jerry Babcock,
Rodney Reid, Linda Edgar.
3rd row: Margy Lee, Ernie Gonzales, Helen Monahan, school nurse, Mr. Matthews, principal,
unknown, Judy Servia.
Bottom row: Pam McPhie, Bob Hurd, Kim Rees, Michael Curzon.