CALTECH MATH PROFESSOR DIES IN CAR CRASH.

Byline: Staff and Wire Services

NORTHRIDGE - A California Institute of Technology mathematician who lived in Northridge and specialized in harmonic analysis was killed in a car crash in Kern County, a university spokeswoman said Friday.

Thomas Wolff, 46, died Monday night, Jill Perry of Caltech said.

Wolff, who earned his bachelor's degree from Harvard, where he played poker with fellow student Bill Gates, got his doctorate in mathematics at University of California at Berkeley, Perry said.

Wolff came to Caltech in 1982 as an assistant professor and was named full professor four years later. He then taught at New York University and UC Berkeley, returning to Caltech in 1995.

Wolff was known as mild-mannered and unassuming, but broke through his shyness to be a mentor and teacher with enormous impact on his graduate students, postdoctoral students and colleagues, Perry said.

Wolff is survived by his wife, Carol Shurbin, a mathematics professor at California State University, Northridge; two sons, James Herbert Wolff, 3, and Richard Thomas Wolff, 5; parents Frank and Lucile Wolff; and sisters Virginia and Caroline.

Funeral arrangements were pending.