George Gorun, a retired mathematics teacher and basketball coach at Glassport High School, had a complete set of student yearbooks from the long-defunct school.

He used information from the books to contribute to the borough's unofficial Web page, which is compiled by his friend, Richard A. Uher..

That Web site is users.telerama.com/~urichard/glassmo.htm. One of the statistics Mr. Gorun modestly contributed was his assertion that he was the winningest basketball coach in Glassport High's history, with 117 wins. The school closed in 1966 after a merger that created the South Allegheny School District.

He taught at Glassport High and at South Allegheny High from 1941 to 1977 before retiring.

"Most of the students looked up to him and admired him," said former student Nadeen Wieczorkowski, of Penn Hills, who noted he would attend students' class reunions.

Another former student, Thomas Lapsley, of Port Vue, became his caregiver later in life, accompanying him to doctors appointments and visiting him at assisted living centers.

Mr. Gorun, 89, died of complications of congestive heart failure Jan. 25 at Southwestern Nursing Center in Pleasant Hills.

His parents, Vasile and Elisaveta Gorun, were Romanian immigrants.

Because George Gorun had only a rudimentary knowledge of English, he was placed in the C section with slow learners in first grade, he wrote in a brief remembrance. He was proud when he was advanced in later years into the A section.

"My early struggles with learning the English language and striving to excel was probably the determining factor in choosing my profession," he wrote.

Lapsley remembered his teacher as a conscientious disciplinarian "who would not put up with nonsense."

His strong interest was sports, said his stepson, Rowland Mowrey, of Rochester, N.Y., who had seen Mr. Gorun listen to a game on the radio while watching a different game on television.

He said Mr. Gorun had fun with his stepgrandchildren, doing such things as feeding catfish on a pier near a restaurant.

Besides his stepson, Mr. Gorun is survived by two stepgrandchildren and seven stepgreat-grandchildren.

A Mass was celebrated Friday at Queen of the Rosary Church in Glassport.