John A. Blume, 92; Engineer Led Way in Earthquake Safety

John A. Blume, 92, considered the “Father of Earthquake Engineering” for his pioneering advances in designing quake-safe buildings, died March 1 at his home in Hillsborough, Calif. No specific cause of death was given.

Blume, born in the small town of Gonzales, Calif., grew up observing problems with structures in the quake-prone state. His father, a construction worker, helped rebuild such San Francisco landmarks as the Palace Hotel and City Hall after the devastating 1906 earthquake and fire.

After graduating from Stanford University, Blume worked as a construction engineer on the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge in the mid-1930s. He founded his own civil engineering firm based in San Francisco in 1945, and nearly two decades later returned to Stanford to earn his doctorate. He founded the John A. Blume Earthquake Engineering Center at Stanford in 1974 and worked to make the university a leading institution in earthquake engineering.