An avid traveler whose trips abroad have taken him to more than 60 countries, McCaughey's latest adventure took him to the East Coast for a taping of the popular game show Who Wants to Be a Millionaire, from which he brought home $16,000.

"I didn't make much money, but I didn't make a fool of myself," he will say to anyone who asks how he fared on the show, which aired Nov. 13. Of the nine people in his group, he said, seven went home with $1,000 or less.

Since the show's airing, McCaughey has received roughly 15 calls from family and friends, including one from a man in Washington who had the same surname and wanted to know if McCaughey had known his father.

McCaughey's brush with fame began "by accident" when his daughter Kerry, who resides in Fremont, attempted to get onto the game show herself in October when tryouts were held in Santa Clara. When she didn't make it to the next round, he said, she suggested that he take a crack at it.

"I knew nothing about it," McCaughey said of the show. "I thought, 'What the heck, I'll try out.' "

He ended up doing so well on the 30-minute, 40-question written exam that he and roughly 30 other people made the cut out of an estimated 300. To this day, McCaughey insists that his daughter is brighter than he is and cannot understand how he landed a spot on the show instead of her.

Nevertheless, he was off to New York—but not before spending two weeks reading an almanac and studying Supreme Court justices in preparation for the show. As it turned out, "none of that did any good."

"It depends a lot on luck. The questions can be very nebulous and far out," he said.

Upon arriving in New York, McCaughey was greeted at the airport by a chauffeur holding a plaque with his name on it and was driven to the Lucerne Hotel on 79th Street and Broadway. That night, McCaughey had to take his wardrobe over to the show for inspection. Contestants had been asked to avoid wearing white or black shirts and were told to bring two or three outfits for approval. McCaughey got the nod of approval for his outfits—a charcoal jacket with a gray shirt and tie and a blue suit with a matching shirt and tie.

Prior to the show's taping, the producer talked to all the contestants about strategies to use. Everyone on the show was helpful, McCaughey said, including host Meredith Vieira, who "puts you at ease."

"Honestly, they want you to win," he said.

All the contestants had to be escorted whenever they left their designated area backstage and again were segregated when they went to the commons for lunch, McCaughey said. To pass the time backstage, the nine contestants in McCaughey's group asked each other trivia questions.

The one thing McCaughey minded most about being on the show was having to smile and wave before the camera for 10 seconds when he was first introduced.

"I could feel my smile going from insipid to sickly," he recalls. "I don't smile well for photos."

McCaughey turned to the audience for his first lifeline on a question about Jamaica's motto in advertisements. He then used his second lifeline to call daughter Kerry to ask who wrote the novel "Sula" (answer: Toni Morrison). Contestants could list up to five people to call, and the show checks with everyone on the list beforehand to make sure they will be available during the filming, McCaughey said. He listed four people as possible lifelines: a doctor, a scientist at NASA, one of his sons who is well-versed in music and his daughter.

The question that stumped McCaughey in the end asked him to identify the vegetable or fruit that was introduced as a "flavor savor" in 1994. Though his instinct told him the answer was the tomato, McCaughey decided not to risk losing the $16,000 he had already won and called it quits.

Rather than experiencing anxiety before the show, which McCaughey had expected, he said he ended up feeling nervous only afterwards. Thoughts of how he should have gone with his instinct and answered "tomato" to the last question kept him awake that night, he said.

But this is not to say that the 77-year-old retired controller for Sears, Roebuck and Co. regrets being on the show.

"Even if I hadn't won a nickel, it would've been a lot of fun," he admits.

It was the first time McCaughey had been to New York since 1944, when he had a 10-hour pass before heading to England and France to fight in World War II. Serving in the 94th Infantry Division under Gen. George S. Patton Jr., McCaughey, then 18, eventually earned a Purple Heart and Bronze Star. He received the Purple Heart after being hit in the leg by artillery from a canon—a blast that took the lives of two friends on either side of him.

Returning home from the war, McCaughey started dating his wife, Patricia, 74, while they were both attending the University of Arizona. They were married in January of 1950. When Sears transferred him from Tucson to San Jose in 1963, the McCaugheys settled in a house on Trinity Avenue in Saratoga, where they raised their two sons and two daughters.

During the almost 40 years since his move to California, McCaughey has volunteered at Good Samaritan Hospital and driven vans for the veterans hospital in Palo Alto. Now retired, he serves as treasurer for the Saratoga Historical Foundation and enjoys collecting coins and stamps and playing golf.

But above all, he enjoys travelling. Among the five dozen countries he's visited are Zambia, Zimbabwe, China, Australia and New Zealand. And travelling is exactly what he plans on investing his winnings from the show in after paying off taxes.

"I'm gonna use it to pay taxes, but I'll manage to get a trip or two out of it," he says.