Submitted photo Terry and Becky Murray of Canfield have traveled the world as teachers. Here they are at the tip of South Africa. Submitted photo

CANFIELD — Terry Murray has spent many years teaching algebra and seeing the world, though it doesn’t take a math whiz to figure out that having visited 82 countries and all seven continents adds up to more than your average amount of travels.

“I taught math, science and social studies to 19 nationalities,” said Terry, who retired after having spent 16 years with his wife, Becky, in Jubail, Taif and Yanbu, Saudi Arabia, and two in Oman before they returned to the United States and taught five years in Albuquerque, N.M.

Before launching their storied careers, Terry and Becky earned master’s degrees in education from Kent State University.

Part of the couple’s time teaching at an international school in Saudi Arabia, where they lived from 1982 to 1999, coincided with the Gulf War, recalled Becky, who also served as a school librarian there and in Albuquerque.

“We wore gas masks. It was not fun,” said Becky, who also taught English. “We also had Scud (ballistic missile) drills and a safe room under the stairway in our house.”

As if that weren’t enough of an adjustment, the couple soon realized they had to be circumspect when attending church services, which often took place in people’s homes in stealth.

“We had to be very secretive about it; they didn’t want you to worship,” Terry said.

An exception was on the Aramco compound, a large gated community, also known as the Dhahran Camp, near the world’s largest oil reserve in the Eastern Province. The residential base, built in the 1950s, has movie theaters and many other American trappings that are taboo or outright forbidden in much of the rest of the country.

Nevertheless, a saving grace for Becky was that the students were easy to work with in the school that at the time, went only as high as ninth grade. The students also had a strong appetite for learning, she added.

The Murrays weren’t shy about making known their appreciation for the U.S. troops. The couple often allowed some of them to use the shower and phone in their home, recalled Terry, noting that the school at which they taught was closed shortly before the bombings.

After Saudi Arabia, the couple lived in Oman from 1999 to 2001, a country that had “unique geological features” and people who, for the most part, were more easygoing than their Saudi Arabian counterparts, Becky observed.

While in Oman, she taught sixth-grade language arts and science; Terry taught pre-algebra and algebra to students in grades seven to 12.

Even though they were back on American soil after having been in Oman, the experience of living in Albuquerque “felt like another country” partly because of the available food, as well as the city’s annual International Balloon Festival, Becky said.

The fest, which takes place in early October, is a world renowned hot-air balloon attraction and destination that draws people from all over the world to celebrate ballooning.

For a while, Terry worked as a substitute math teacher because no full-time position was available.

The couple made their voices heard also by singing in a community choir before returning to the Mahoning Valley, where Terry did some substitute teaching prior to retiring, and where Becky had taught before they moved overseas.

After coming back to the area, the couple resumed their longtime affiliation with First Presbyterian Church of Youngstown, which Terry joined in the mid-1960s and where he was baptized. They also are faithful members of the church choir.

In addition, Terry and Becky, who are avid bridge players, are happy that their children have followed in their educational and cultural footsteps. Their son, Eric, is a music teacher in Cairo and daughter, Beth, who attended the University of New Mexico, is a math coach in Hanoi, Vietnam.

Eric and Beth also have followed their parents’ trajectory in another, perhaps more subtle way.

“They both teach at an international school,” Becky said with pride.

news@tribtoday.com