But it wasn’t just dignity he was preserving. Professor Maria Clara Nucci, who once taught with Mr. Ames at Georgia Tech, said the word “math” cuts in half what covers a wide range of disciplines, from logic and history to algebra and calculus.

“Mathematics opens your mind,” Mrs. Nucci said. “If it doesn’t, you’re probably just studying math.”

In more than 35 years in academia, Mr. Ames taught at almost a dozen universities; headed several mathematics departments, including Georgia Tech’s; wrote 18 technical books and 113 research publications and encouraged women to enter the field.

William Francis Ames, 82, of Sandy Springs died Aug. 3 of cancer at home. A celebration of his life will be today at a private location. Cremation Society of Georgia is in charge of arrangements.

Born in Canada in 1926, Mr. Ames grew up on a Wisconsin farm during the Great Depression. With his father out of work, a young Mr. Ames and his brother delivered milk so the family could make ends meet. After graduating from high school in 1944 at age 17, he joined the Navy, serving in both World War II and the Korean War.

He earned his bachelor’s and master’s degrees in applied mathematics from the University of Wisconsin-Madison in 1950 and 1954, respectively. In 1955, he became an engineer with DuPont before launching into a teaching career that spanned more than three decades.

After stints at the Universities of Delaware and Iowa, he joined Georgia Tech in 1975 and became the director of the school of mathematics in 1982. He became chairman of the University Center of Mathematics in 1988.

In addition, he was a visiting professor at the University of Georgia and Stanford University, and taught at schools in Argentina, Germany and South Africa. He retired from Georgia Tech as emeritus professor in the early ’90s.

Terry Ames said the exactness of the science fueled her husband’s passion for it.

“There are no if’s, and’s or buts about [mathematics],” she said. “It is very logical and rational, like him.”

As an applied mathematician, Mr. Ames related the science to the world around him. An example included working with Goodrich Tires to study hydroplaning, said Mrs. Nucci, a mathematical physicist and professor in Italy.

He was a pioneer in solving mathematical models with computers, and he was among the first to push the need to solve nonlinear problems, she said.

“In the late ’60s ... a majority of the engineers who were doing math models were making it too simple,” Mrs. Nucci said. “Most of the people at the time were convinced that nonlinear problems could be approximated with linear problems.”

In addition to being a noted scholar and teacher, Mr. Ames supported women in mathematics. In fact, his daughter Karen became a professor of mathematics. She died a few years ago.

“He was a man ahead of his time,” Mrs. Nucci said. “He did not have a narrow view” on women in the field.

In addition to wife Terry, Mr. Ames is survived by daughters Pam Ames of Seattle and Susan Ames of Pasadena, Calif.; brother Don Ames of St. Louis; and sister Joanne Wilcox of Dallas.