He was an unlikely hero, a scruffy math whiz who looked like Paul Bunyan or a forgotten member of ZZ Top.

Yet when news spread of Steve Sigur's impending death from brain cancer, his former students at Paideia School, where he taught for 29 years, made pilgrimages to see him.

Paideia School (ENLARGE)

Math teacher Steve Sigur was known for his skill and availability to students. He made his own flutes and went on lengthy hikes.

They sat beside Mr. Sigur, a weakened giant whose 6-foot-6 frame and towering intellect had first intimidated them.

They read aloud e-mails from other alumni and told him how they'd become enthralled with math — and enchanted by him — in his ramshackle classroom.

"It was really a chorus of love to a great teacher," said Paideia headmaster Paul Bianchi of Atlanta.

Mr. Sigur's classroom was a physical manifestation of his encyclopedic mind — a sitar leaning in a corner, an electric guitar hanging overhead, and papers, computers and 3-D models everywhere.

He peppered his talks with references to William Blake, edible plants, the Rolling Stones and Zen painters, and recited long passages from "The Canterbury Tales."

At the heart of that mess was his tidy belief that mathematics unifies the universe.

"Steve was about the beauty of math as well as the beauty of learning," Mr. Bianchi said.

The memorial service for Steven W. Sigur is 4 p.m. today at H.M. Patterson & Son, Spring Hill. Mr. Sigur, 62, of Atlanta died Saturday at Budd Terrace at Wesley Woods.

The Atlanta native taught at Northside High School, his alma mater, before he joined Paideia in 1974, a few years after the independent school opened.

Its progressiveness was a perfect fit.

"Paideia is very comfortable with individuality," Mr. Bianchi said. Good thing, because "Steve didn't dress for success."

So much so that an alarmed parent once asked why that homeless man was allowed to hang around the campus.

Despite outward disorder, Mr. Sigur's internal world was grounded in order.

"Our mom was schizophrenic, and we had an unusual upbringing," said his brother, Joseph Sigur, of Atlanta. "I think he escaped into an intellectual world that was science-oriented, then gravitated toward Albert Einstein and math and physics until it was embedded in him. And Paideia was his ultimate."

Once he joined the faculty there, "we considered that his first family for 30 years, and we were the second family," his brother said.

Mr. Sigur earned a bachelor of science degree in physics from Brown University in 1968 and did doctoral work at the University of Maryland, where he earned his master's degree.

He co-authored the forthcoming book, "The Triangle Book," with Princeton professor John H. Conway.

He played the banjo, made bamboo flutes and revitalized himself every summer with long, solitary hikes — embarking on a 30-day trek in the Canadian wilderness with little more than a pocket knife and bags of lentils and rice.

He lived alone, encouraged students to phone him anytime and spent hours with his laptop at a cafe near Emory University, where anyone could find him.

He coached Paideia basketball and won awards coaching the Georgia American Regions Mathematics League team.

He taught students who struggled with math and students who excelled at it. All along, he encouraged them to teach each other.

"If someone found math a mystery, Steve could turn them around and help them see it in a larger context that made sense," Mr. Bianchi said.

"He believed in the potential of every student he taught," he said, "and because he did, so many students reached a potential they didn't know was there. That's what great teachers do. In a school filled with great teachers, he was one of the most miraculous."

There are no other immediate survivors.