James M. Gere Ph.D. ‘54, engineering professor emeritus, died Jan. 30 from a rare form of cancer. He was 82.

Gere taught at Stanford for 34 years and co-founded the John A. Blume Earthquake Engineering Center.

In addition to conducting earthquake research, Gere co-founded the Blume Center in 1974 with Haresh Shah Ph.D. ‘63, one of his former students who later became a Stanford professor of engineering. Gere served as the Center’s co-director until 1986.

Gere also became the founding leader of the Stanford Committee on Earthquake Preparedness, which encouraged students, faculty and staff to secure furniture and make emergency plans in case of emergency.

Gere co-authored the well-known “Mechanics of Materials,” and he and Shah were among the first foreigners to travel to Tangshan, China, in 1980 to study the aftermath of a devastating earthquake four years earlier.