Ethel Sisselsky doesn't know what attracted her husband, Enoch Sisselsky, to teaching; she only knows that he enjoyed the work immensely.

"He just came home a happy man. ... We were rich that way," she said.

Mr. Sisselsky, 87, of Squirrel Hill and Davie, Fla., a math teacher in the Pittsburgh Public Schools for about 30 years, died Jan. 31 of pulmonary disease at Florida Medical Center in Lauderdale Lakes.

Family members said Mr. Sisselsky promised to make "math lovers" of his students and used puzzles, games and gimmicks to make the subject more enticing. Lee Sisselsky of Orlando, Fla., said his father was a natural.

"That just can't be taught. It has to do with being able to put yourself in your students' shoes," he said.

Mr. Sisselsky was born Dec. 15, 1922, a son of Harry and Eva Sisselsky. He graduated from Allderdice High School in 1940, studied aircraft engine repair at South Vo-Tech High School and then moved to Bradford, Pa., to work in a factory supporting the World War II effort.

From 1943 to 1945, he served with the Army in Italy, Africa and the Philippines. Lee Sisselsky said his father spoke little of those days but did recall the terror he felt in an Anzio foxhole, shells raining down around him.

After the war, Mr. Sisselsky studied at the University of Pittsburgh on the GI Bill, receiving his bachelor's degree in education in 1949. He later received his master's from the University of New Mexico.

Mr. Sisselsky met his wife at a singles event sponsored by United Jewish Federation. As an icebreaker, each man took off a shoe and placed it on a pile; Each woman was supposed to take a shoe and seek the owner.

"But I had my eye on him all day, and I memorized that shoe, and I did go after it," Mrs. Sisselsky said. The couple married Dec. 26, 1954.

During three decades with the Pittsburgh schools, Mr. Sisselsky taught at elementary and middle schools and the Opportunity School for troubled youths. He also taught night school, summer school and English as a second language and spent three years as a math supervisor before retiring in 1981.

However, Mr. Sisselsky wasn't done by a long shot.

He taught at Winchester Thurston School part-time from 1981 to 1986. After he and his wife began spending part of their time in Florida, he volunteered as a tutor in local elementary, middle and high schools.

"He was just always involved in something worthwhile," she said.

Mr. Sisselsky was active outside the public schools, too.

He taught math education at Point Park University and was a Boy Scout leader and camp counselor. He taught Sunday school at Shaare Torah and Temple Sinai, both in Squirrel Hill.

Also surviving are his stepdaughter, Nancy Hoffman of Squirrel Hill; a brother, Sidney Sissel of Kendall, Fla.; and three granddaughters.

Services were held at Lakeside Memorial Park, Doral, Fla.

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