ANOTHER PART OF GEOFF SMITH’S PERSONALITY
WISH THAT I HAD A PHOTOGRAPH OF THE GREAT SAM BIRNEY, MY SEVENTH GRADE TEACHER AT NORTH HILLSBOROUGH SCHOOL (CA) IN 1953-54, WHO OVERSAW A GREAT CHANGE IN ME FROM CLASSIC BRILLIANT UNDERACHIEVER, TO SOMEONE WHO THOUGHT THAT, HEY, HE MIGHT MAKE SOMETHING OF HIMSELF. BIRNEY, WHO ALWAYS WORE A BOW TIE, RODE ME MERCILESSLY, AS HE DID THE YOUNG MAN QUOTED BELOW. HE ALWAYS THOUGHT WE COULD DO BETTER, AND HE NEVER UNDERSTOOD WHY ANYONE COULD NOT DO FRACTIONS, MULTIPICATION, EARLY ALGEBRA AND SIMPLE GEOMETRY. HE KEPT IT REALO, WITH FOOTBALL CONTESTS EVERY WEEK, WITH STUDENTS BETTING ON THE WINNER, AND THE SPREAD, AND LEARNING HOW TO DO NUMBERS AS WE WENT ALONG. GOODNESS, BIRNEY IS ONE OF THE TEACHERS THAT I RECALL. HE WAS MR. CHIPS, AND SADLY, HE DIED OF A HEART ATTACK AT — I THINK AGE 39. HE WAS ONE OF THOSE PEOPLE ONE ENCOUNTERS ONLY ONE IN A LIFETIME, AND CONSIDERS HIM/HERSELF LUCKY TO HAVE DONE SO…..
The Power of Sam Birney — WITH EDWARD BARNHOLT
DSM: In your early days in grammar school, are there teachers that you remember that
stood out?
EWB: Not so much. My early grammar school was literally a one-room schoolhouse, so it
was all the different grades mixed together, I think Kindergarten through 3rd or 4
th
grade.
We just pretty much advanced at our own pace. There wasn’t a real structured program. I
don’t have a lot of recollection of any particular teacher or event, even in Ridgewood. I
went up to 6
th
grade in New Jersey. Even though these were great schools and I know that I
had great teachers, there wasn’t any one particular teacher that stood out.
Probably the one teacher that stood out for me was after we moved to California. My Dad
decided to hop and move to California. Someone he had worked with in New York had
come out and started his own company in Pleasanton, California—Livermore, California—
that serviced the nuclear power industry. Dad worked there for a while and then ended up
working at GE in San Jose in their nuclear power division when that was a big thing. We
located in North Hillsborough in the move to California. Again that was totally based on
the quality of the school system. This was about 1955.
We moved in around November or December, and I was in 7
th
grade. I went to another
school in Burlingame for a while—then around February or March of that year, my 7
th
grade teacher, Sam Birney, sat me down and gave me a scolding. He said, “You can be
better.” I was not a real serious student. I wasn’t really paying much attention. I did pretty
well. I was getting reasonably good grades. But he said, “If you really applied yourself, you
could do a lot better at school.” He just rode me all year. Every time I didn’t do quite well
enough and live up to his expectations, he would sit down and chat with me again and say,
“I know you can do better. I know you can do better.” That was really a turn-around year
for me, 7
th
grade. I always look back to that and to Sam Birney. I think from an education
point of view, he turned around my whole view and made me a serious student that really
wanted to learn. I really valued learning, appreciated learning, sought out learning. Again I
think that was because of Sam’s curiosity, his persistence, his intensity around education.
He just was a wonderful master teacher.