Alphonso DiPietro, a mathematics professor at Eastern for 50 years, died on May 31 at Meadowbrook Health Center at Clark-Lindsey Village in Urbana, Ill.

His visitation will be held this Friday at 4:30 p.m. until 7:30 p.m. at St. Charles Borromeo Catholic Church, 921 Madison Ave.

His funeral will also be at St. Charles Borromeo Catholic Church, at 10 a.m. on Saturday.

DiPietro, who was 88, started teaching at Eastern in 1959, and later became the chair of the mathematics department for 20 years.

He retired in 1987, but shortly after his wife, Luisa passed away in 1992, he started teaching at Eastern again part-time.

Peter Andrews, chair of the mathematics department, said DiPietro was a rather amazing person.

“Full of life, and energy, and loved people,” Andrews said.

DiPietro was well known for the stories he would tell to his students during his classes. One story, Andrews recollected, was about his bow tie.

“He told me once that he started wearing bow ties because when he first started teaching, most faculty members wore a jacket and tie, but he was so short that his tie kept dragging on the chalk board,” Andrews said.

“He wore them ever since. He would love to tell you stories like that.”

DiPietro had been teaching at Eastern until Spring 2009, when he fell in his apartment and broke his hip. Because of this, he had to miss the last class of the semester.

He was brought to a nursing home in Champaign and was expected to leave and return to classes this upcoming fall.

“I thought of him as a good friend and confidant,” Andrews said. “Whenever you saw him, he always perked up a little bit like he was happy to see you. He was the special one; he was a very special person.”

Sam Sottosanto can be reached at 581-7942 or at deneic@gmail.com.