What's the Texas Toot? What good is math? Ask Kip Murray

 

By attending the Texas Toot, Kip Murray did not take up drinking to celebrate his retirement from the University of Houston, where he was Assistant Professor of Mathematics.

 

The event he described was a week-long conference in Austin attended by people who play early instruments, including the recorder. Kip, who often performs in church with wife Pat, plays all sizes of recorders: soprano, alto, tenor and bass. (They also sing in the Meeting House Choir.)

 

During his 41 years at the U of H, Kip taught (according to a friend's estimate) perhaps 30,000 students, some of whom would tell him "My dad had you for math." And there are members of today's math department who were his students.

 

His approach must have helped produce successful engineers and computer scientists. "Teaching is story-telling," he says. "I enjoyed turning mathematics into stories."

 

What can math do for a student? Kip points to what a personnel director once told him: "I like math majors because they can be trained to do anything. They know how to learn."

 

Prior to joining the University, Kip worked in applied mathematics with a company doing research for the Department of Defense.

 

Best wishes to Kip in his retirement.