Norton A. Levy, 81; taught math at Concord Carlisle High

NORTON A. LEVY

On his classroom wall at Concord Carlisle High School, Norton A. Levy prominently displayed for his math students a quote from the 19th-century British poet Robert Browning: "Ah, but a man's reach should exceed his grasp/Or what's a heaven for?"

"It was always there, and he referred to it from time to time," said Mike Frantz, head of the math department at Brookline High School and a former student of Mr. Levy's. "It wasn't a dusty quote, it played an active part in the way he taught. The idea was that math was something to explore. He really saw it as something exciting."

Mr. Levy, who would design a class for as few as two students in his determination to nurture talented young mathematicians, died Tuesday in Massachusetts General Hospital of complications from a heart attack. He was 81 and had lived in Newton.

"He was an incredibly dedicated teacher who cared very deeply about his students and was somebody who very early on encouraged girls to become interested in and use their talents in math, something that was not very popular at the time," said Elaine DiCicco, a former student of Mr. Levy's who became a teaching colleague at Concord Carlisle and later principal of the school.

"He encouraged students in a way that really drew out from them their strengths in the field of math," she said. "For those who were particularly gifted, he really was an inspiration, and for those who may have felt they weren't that gifted, he was someone who helped them develop their skills, to understand that they could do math."

Teaching didn't stop for Mr. Levy when the final bell rang each day or after the last class each school year. He taught and tutored during off hours and the summer. On school breaks, he sometimes would take elite math students on field trips to savor life outside the classroom, whether that meant fishing on Cape Cod, bowling in Boston, or dining on Chinese food.

"I was always in awe of him, frankly," said Ken Anderson, a former student who is now an actuary in Concord. Referring to the 1988 movie about an inspirational math teacher, Anderson said, "He reminded me of Jamie Escalante in the movie 'Stand and Deliver.' "

Mr. Levy grew up in Roxbury and graduated from Boston Latin School, where he played football and developed his affection for mathematics.

"He was very tall and was always giving us math problems to solve," said Mr. Levy's cousin, David Rosenthal of Cambridge. "He was a real mathematician, even back in the '40s."

Mr. Levy received a bachelor's degree from the University of Chicago in 1948 and a master's in 1950 from the Harvard Graduate School of Education. Teaching first brought him to the former Sumner High School in Holbrook, then to Acton-Boxborough Regional High School.

In 1954, he began at Concord Carlisle and stayed until 1989, except for two years as head of the math department at Brookline High School.

He was so dedicated to teaching that friends often had to pry him from the classroom. In the early 1960s, some friends suggested he vacation in the Catskills in upstate New York. There, he met Sue Ronson, who was working at Grossingers Resort.

"I took some dancing lessons, and she was one of my dancing teachers," he told the Globe in May 2006, after she died. "I was her worst student, and she acted so nice to me, and we went out a couple of times. She came to visit my mother in Boston, and before you know it, we were engaged and married."

In an interview for his wife's obituary, he said that he "was lucky to have her for 42 years. Like everybody else, I will always remember her. She was special."

So, too, was Mr. Levy, his former students recalled, and the feeling was mutual.

When Mr. Levy retired, he organized a dinner for many of his former elite students, calling it "a gathering of all those who have encouraged my best teaching efforts on the occasion of my retirement," Anderson said. "He was celebrating his students, who he said made him such a good teacher and gave him joy."

Frantz said he was one of Mr. Levy's students for "four years running, and in those days there hadn't been a calculus course at the high school. I was a sophomore, and he took me and one other student and taught us calculus all summer long so we could get into this new advanced placement course as juniors and join the seniors. I don't know if he got any payment at all for it."

Eight years ago, Mr. Levy was among the recipients of the Edyth May Sliffe awards for excellence in high school math teaching that are given out by the Mathematical Association of America, but being a math whiz also had advantages outside the classroom.

"He played poker with the same group of men every Thursday night for about 20 years," said his daughter, Jocelyn Zaslaw of Arlington.

"When he was very ill, they came into the hospital and brought a deck of cards. They said he was a great player because of his phenomenal math skills. One of his friends said, 'You know, he's like the bank: Money goes in, it doesn't come out.' "

In addition to his daughter, Mr. Levy leaves a son, Jeffrey of Los Angeles; a granddaughter; and a grandson.

A memorial service will be held today at 11 a.m. in Levine Chapels in Brookline. Burial will be private.