Royal Penewell taught math. When he wasn’t in class, he still taught. Even when math wasn’t the subject, he’d make it so.

Better yet, Penewell took math and made it fun.

“He always made mathematics fun for his students, which is sometimes hard,” said Darrell Rasmussen, of Puyallup, who taught math with Penewell at Bellevue’s Interlake High School and at Bellevue Community College.

“He had little sayings, we called them Royalisms,” Rasmussen said. More than a co-worker, Rasmussen was Penewell’s close friend. “I spent many days with him up at Spee-Bi-Dah, crabbing and catching clams. We also drank a lot of beer.”

Royal Eugene Penewell died July 24. He was 85. With his wife, Joan, he lived at the beach community of Spee-Bi-Dah on the Tulalip Indian Reservation, where he loved potluck dinners and boating and crabbing in Port Susan Bay.

Along with Joan Penewell, he is survived by his son, David Penewell of Edmonds; daughter Cindy Guy and her husband Ken, of Bainbridge Island; daughter Carol Penewell, of Arlington; and by four grandchildren, Corey and Allyson Guy, and Eric and Kyle Penewell.

“The coolest thing, he always was a teacher. He used that with us,” said David Penewell, 53. “He’d make us figure out a problem or a solution, even if we were building tree houses in the back yard.”

Joan Penewell met her future husband at Western Washington University after his service in the Naval Air Force in World War II. He was on a carrier in the Pacific and in a squadron that tested new bombers, flying them to airfields in the Pacific.

The couple married on Oct. 10, 1952, the same year Penewell earned his bachelor’s degree in education.

“He started his teaching career on Vashon Island, then moved to Bellevue and taught all grades, from grade school and junior high to high school, and at Bellevue Community College,” said Joan Penewell, who is retired from teaching at Everett’s Whittier Elementary School.

Just as her husband had “Royalisms” for math students, he had other sayings at home, including “It’s only money” and “Don’t tell Joan,” his wife said. “Money was never important to him,” she added.

Since his death from cancer, his widow has been touched by letters she’s received from former students.

One woman, now a teacher, wrote to say that Penewell had been her algebra teacher in the early 1960s at Highland Junior High School in Bellevue. Reading from the former pupil’s letter, Joan Penewell said: “I struggled mightily, and your husband, Mr. Penewell, told me that the light will come on.”

To supplement his income, Royal Penewell worked weekends and summers at a hardware store at Bellevue’s Lake Hills Shopping Center. The letter writer recalled visiting the store on a Saturday just to tell her algebra teacher “that the light did come on,” Joan Penewell said.

After retirement, Royal Penewell was active in the Washington State Math Council, Puget Sound Council of Teachers of Mathematics, the Washington State School Retirees Association and the Sno-Isle School Retirees Association. He was also a longtime board member for Village Community Services of Arlington, a nonprofit group serving disabled adults. The Penewells’ youngest daughter, Carol, is disabled.

Penewell’s many friendships include a group of retired math teachers, a bunch calling themselves ROMEOs — for Retired Old Math-men Eating Out.

“It’s a pretty funny group, they have shirts and hats. They go to brew pubs for lunch,” Joan Penewell said. “They even keep a history. They had all belonged to an organization promoting mathematics, and have been very dedicated to math.”

More than ever, math is a hotly debated issue as the state boosts graduation requirements and focuses on WASL testing. “He always took the middle road,” Joan Penewell said. “He thought all children should be challenged.”

Art Mabbott, of Woodinville, said he had “really big shoes to fill” when he started teaching at Interlake High School following Penewell’s retirement. “He was that special kind of teacher. He could bring mathematics to life in his class,” Mabbott said.

While serving on the board of a math organization, Mabbott said Penewell often attended dinner meetings. “We had a raffle, 100 bucks to a teacher. He would turn it into a math problem. If you didn’t figure it out and it was your number, the money was on the line,” Mabbott said. “He turned everything into math.”

Joan Penewell said her husband had a tough early childhood. Born in Oakland, Calif., his mother died when he was 2. At 4, he lost his grandmother. His father remarried, and he grew up in Portland, Ore.

“When we went through our pictures, my gosh, he was always smiling,” she said. “He saw the good in everything, the positive side of life.”

Reporter Julie Muhlstein: 425-339-3460 or muhlstein@heraldnet.com.