I still remember my first extended conversation with Barbara “Barb” Judy in the halls of Bridgeport High School. I had seen her many times prior where we casually would say hello to one another, but this time I was told she wanted to speak to me.

 

“How can I get coverage on my academic teams,” the diminutive Judy quizzed me.

 

I prepared myself for the worst. Not because of anything I had heard about her, but because the response I figured I was going to give her is one that about 50 percent or more that hear it when asking the same type of question simply cannot grasp, or refuse to.

 

As I told her the best way to get her information published, including team photos, was to email me the results, she pleasantly asked for my email. As I did so, she wanted to know the difference between coverage decisions on academic teams and in-person coverage of Council meeting or a football game. This is where I had to give the answer I often dread where I explain attendance and interest and having a 2-person staff. After hearing it, she again pleasantly responded that she understood and said she would begin seeing emails regularly.

 

She did. They emails came. They always came. Sometimes I would email her back, or call her, for more information. Occasionally, we would send photographers to an event.

 

During that time, something ever better happened. I had a new friend. Barb Judy became one of many educators who I befriended because of her kindness and how I admired how she did her job.

 

This is being written not to talk about getting how to get items published on our Web site. Rather, as the majority of you already know, Barb Judy passed away at the age of 79 on New Year’s Day.

 

In a blog I wrote the year she announced her retirement from coaching academic teams in 2015 (nearly a decade after retiring from doing work with students), I pointed out something many were not aware of on the competitive front. It was something I wanted everyone to know when it came to the history of Bridgeport High School.

 

You don’t have to think too long or too hard to produce a lengthy list of names of coaches that have captured multiple titles at Bridgeport High School. You’ve got Wayne Jamison, Hugh Gainer, Jon Griffith, Robert Shields, Shelley Mazzie, Jan Grisso and Josh Nicewarner on the sports side and then you’ve got Alice Rowe on the academic side.

 

Yes, I know I’ve probably left someone out. That happens when your school does a whole lot of winning across a whole lot of genres so, please don’t feel slighted; and if you do or if you just want to acknowledge who I've left out just add them to the comment section below.

 

I purposely left one name off the list. You probably guessed it. It is Barb Judy. Judy, in roughly a quarter century of coaching academic teams, is arguably the most successful coach of multiple teams than any other in the history of BHS.

 

Judy coached various academic teams for so long at the high school that when we chatted for that blog, she wasn’t 100 percent certain when she started when I first asked her. However, like any good member of academia she found the date and it goes back to the 1992-1993 school year.

 

Back then, Judy was already dabbling in academic competition with Virginia Graham on a team that was called JETS (Junior Engineering Technology Society). Things weren’t exactly promising in those early 1990s' events.

 

“I remember that early on when we got there no one knew what we were doing … I knew if we were going to compete in this, we’d need some help,” Judy said back in 2015.

 

While she was thinking about helping that particular team, Barbara Judy was also thinking about getting involved in other academic competitions. She looked at an event that was called the “Academic Decathlon” and decided that it wasn’t the right fit for BHS. For starters, the cost was too much, and, for finishers, the cost meant only a few kids could participate.

 

“I was trying to find something where we could get a lot of kids involved in and I found it while reading my hometown newspaper in St. Mary’s,” said Judy. “There was something called Quiz Bowl that was in the line of Jeopardy, so I figured we’d give it a try.”

 

Barbara Judy and the first BHS team tried it in that 1992-93 year. And it’s a good thing she didn’t let initial results sway her future involvement.

 

“That first meet … Yes, I remember it,” she said with a laugh I can easily hear in my mind. “We got one question right. We truly had no clue.”

 

Eventually, they would get a clue. Eventually, Judy would raise money and do things like local competitions against groups from the Bridgeport American Legion, the Kiwanis Club, church groups and the Lion’s Club to raise funds for things like buzzers. Eventually, wins came. Eventually, state championships came – lots of them.

 

In Quiz Bowl alone, Judy’s Quiz Bowl teams won seven Class AA titles, including her final one in March of 2015. The team has four Class AAA titles to their credit including one in 2012-13 when the squad – competing as Class AA – was the top team regardless of classification.

 

Judy also helped lead the school’s science bowl team to two state championships. The JETS, which became the TEAMS competition, won, amazingly, 17 state championships from 1993-94. For good measure, her jayvee group in the TEAMS earned 11 state championships. She also coached the 2007-08 engineering-based team to a third-place finish in the nation.

 

Want more?

 

Judy’s Science Bowl teams won two state titles. They also earned a national win in the “Fuel Cell King of the Hill” event and also “ISD-Biology” in 2006-07.

 

For good measure, she had a late run coaching the History Bowl and Bee. No state titles, but multiple second place finishes and strong showings under her guidance in national competition.

 

For decades, she coached – and won – with four squads. She kept coaching and winning even after retiring from teaching in 2006. I didn’t know if the math was correct in 2015 (neither did she), but she has more than 30 state titles to her credit.

 

Talking just about her academic coaching, however, would be shortchanging her impact. Her obituary states she retired from the Harrison County School system after 32 (although she told me she started in Taylor County so it may be a few more years).

 

For three decades, she served as a counselor. And based on what I remember from years gone by and from current comments on her on various social media platforms after her passing, she was just as strong as a counselor.

 

Considering the success of so many BHS alumni, it is safe to say that Barb Judy impacted thousands of students who are now productive members of society. Her hand helped lead them to prosperous jobs and likely a prosperous family life.

 

Part of her impact has been recognized. In 2008, she was named a Benedum Fellow Award winner. It is the highest award bestowed on a Bridgeport resident for contributions to the community. And in 2017 she was inducted into the Bridgeport High School Hall of Fame for her contributions to education.

 

When you put it all together, Barbara Judy had a Hall of Fame life. It is one whose impact will carry on for generations.

 

Rest in peace my friend. Your work here is done.

 

Editor's Note: Top three file photos of Barbara "Barb" Judy are by Ben Queen Photography. Bottom photo is a portrait shot that ran with her obituary. Her obituary can be found HERE.