With a quick wit and a firm hand, Mario Dante “Muzzy” Falsani shaped the lives of thousands of young men and women during more than a half-century as a mathematics and science teacher in Connecticut and abroad.

Mr. Falsani, of Shelton, Connecticut, died on Wednesday, November 14, at St. Vincent’s Medical Center in Bridgeport, Connecticut, after a long illness. He was 82.

Mr. Falsani spent nearly all his life teaching mathematics and science in the classroom as well as lessons in life, love and politics wherever and whenever family and friends gathered for fellowship, reunions and holidays.

For Mr. Falsani, politics was a professional sport and he was an active participant. With dry wit and an affable manner, Mr. Falsani was charmingly persuasive and remained firm in his convictions. He was a consummate film buff and a lover of history. In the kitchen, Mr. Falsani ruled – turning Italian fare that not only stuck to the ribs, but warmed the soul.

His passion was molding the minds of students and his generosity with his time was extraordinary. Mr. Falsani spent most of his career at Central Junior High School and Greenwich High School in Greenwich, Connecticut, where he retired in 1992. He was not retired long, however, and went on to teach for several more years at St. Gabriel Middle School in Stamford, Connecticut, and at Gateway Community College in New Haven, Connecticut.

“My father was my hero, a gentleman in every sense,” his daughter, Cathleen, said. “I’ve never known another person with a truer sense of wonder and curiosity, quicker wit, or more genuine sense of humility about his knowledge and accomplishments—both of which were vast.

“He taught me to see the world as an adventure and to choose the one-of-kind experience or chance of a lifetime over the obligatory or quotidian any time,” she said. “He was funny and so deeply, naturally kind-hearted. He was a believer and taught me to believe, but never tried to make faith as complicated as everyone else tries to make it. For that alone I could never be adequately grateful. He taught me how to see, how to listen, how to taste, how not to take myself (or anyone else, for that matter) too seriously. He taught me to love learning. To love the world and enjoy our time here on it.”

Born August 15, 1930 in Milford, New Hampshire, the son of Italian immigrants, Mr. Falsani was a graduate of Keene State College, in Keene, New Hampshire. He held several graduate degrees from Fairfield University in Connecticut and Columbia University in New York City, where he also did his doctoral work in education.

Mr. Falsani served in the U.S. Navy as a gun director from 1952 to 1955 and then became a civilian teacher in the U.S. Force. While teaching the students of American military in Germany, Mr. Falsani met and courted Helen Page, a fellow educator from Stamford, Connecticut. They married in Stamford in 1963 and raised a daughter, Cathleen, who would become a journalist, and a son, Mark, who would become a U.S. Air Force fighter pilot.

Mr. Falsani was a man of faith, serving as a trustee of Word of God Christian Church in Fairfield, Connecticut.

In addition to his wife, Helen, Mr. Falsani is survived by his son, Maj. Mark D. Falsani (USAF) of Boise, Idaho; his daughter, Cathleen Falsani Possley; her husband, Maurice Possley, and his grandson, Vasco Fitzmaurice Mark David Possley, of Laguna Beach Calif. He leaves behind a brother, Umberto Falsani of New Hampshire, and many nieces and nephews. Mr. Falsani was preceded in death by his parents, Ceasar and Aida (Rocca) Falsani; a brother, Ceasar Falsani of Florida; and his sister, Joan Tafe of New Hampshire.

Visitation was held Monday, Nov. 19 at the Riverview Funeral Home, 390 River Road, Shelton. A celebration of Mr. Falsani’s life was held Tuesday in the First United Methodist Church of Shelton, 188 Rocky Rest Road, co-officiated by the Rev. Ian Morgan Cron and the Rev. Diane Jones. Burial followed with full military honors at Riverside Cemetery.

In lieu of flowers, the family requests that memorial donations be made to The Fisher Center for Alzheimer’s Research Foundation (www.alzinfo.org), One Intrepid Square West 46th St. & 12th Ave., New York, NY 10036.

Condolences to Mr. Falsani’s family may be posted at www.riverviewfh.com.