Coray helps students see value in learning
Chris Coray is a math teacher at Utah State University and his goals, he says, include experiencing great things while he can and to help young people see the value of what they learn.
By Christine Bastian
Staff Writer
Chris Coray a math professor at Utah State University, said his goals include experiencing great things and helping young people see the value of what they learn.
“I have the best job in the world from every perspective,” Coray said. “Understand you won’t be wealthy in a monetary value, but you can become extremely wealthy in the quality of life.”
Coray was born in Salt Lake City in 1943 and grew up there. He said he’s loved math since he was 7 years old, and he still does. He went to school at the University of Utah for his undergraduate degree. During the Vietnam War, he went into the U.S. Army for four years. After the war, he returned to the University of Utah, which was the only Utah school with a math doctorate program in 1970. He finished school in 1973.
Coray taught at Idaho State University before coming to USU. He said he liked it there, but it didn’t quite fit his hopes. So, he came to “lovely Cache Valley” in 1975.
Coray said he is happy with his career. He likes to develop new ideas and share math with young people. He said there’s so much to learn and he enjoys that and there aren’t outside forces constraining him. He could have gone into industry, but he enjoys being a professor. He was offered a job by General Motors in Detroit, but that’s not where he wanted to live. He came here because he enjoys research, teaching and interaction with young people.
The classes Coray is teaching this semester are Actuarial Mathematics (an advanced course for those who seek to be actuaries, a field in industry with many jobs and high salaries) and the second semester of Calculus. He is an advisor for more than 100 students and is the director of the undergraduate studies in the math department.
Coray has been married for 35 years to his wife, Bobby. She is the president of the Cache Chamber of Commerce. He has two daughters, Kim and Wendy. Kim is the mother of a beautiful little girl, named Savannah, and Wendy is expecting, Coray said.
“I admire her not just for her intellect, but her heart. She is so kind. She can sense a child’s need to be loved. All she does is seem to make the world better every day of her life. She’s been my greatest teacher,” Coray said of his wife.
Coray said he is an avid fisherman, an occasional golfer and a full-time grandpa. He likes to read really good fiction, including a little science fiction. He also likes to read biographies. But he does not restrict himself to those things.
Coray has several goals at this point of life. He wants to avoid allowing his world to shrink around him. He wants to experience great things as long as he is able and said his wife will be his greatest asset in doing so. His goals are for him to experience the great joy only a grandparent can have, he wants to be all his grandchildren want him to be, and he wants to continue to make his wife happy.
He said he is glad he has followed this path of life.
“Unlike those in Thoreau’s Walden, I have not lived a life of quiet desperation. Mine has been one of nearly uninterrupted joy,” Coray said.
Coray said he considers himself a lucky man with a good life. He has good health, a magnificent support system in his family, and new interaction with young people every day at school. He said he has zero needs and few wants.
He said, “What, could you ask for more?”