Please consider this issue as resolved. I spoke with Microsoft tech
support. They indicated the reason the target  columns would not
display the results  of the formula  was due to the format of the
cells in the column  being Text instead of General. To fix  this, I
had to:

1. copy  the formula from the source  cell/column to the target
cell/column

2. select the target cell  column, change format to General

3. select the text of the formula in the cell and press F2 then
Enter

The results of the formula then appeared as expected. I've worked
with excel  since 1999, have done extensive formula and VBA work and
have never seen this before. I was unable to find any reference to
behavior of this kind on the 'net.