Brewster Gere

Professor of Mathematics (1947-72)

11/06/1973

Professor Emeritus Brewster Huntington Gere died last summer at his home in McLean, Virginia, where he and his wife Peggy had moved after his retirement from Hamilton in 1972.

Brewster Gere was born in Syracuse, New York. He received a B.A. from Yale, an M.A. from Syracuse and a Ph.D. in mathematics from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He was on the staff of Herzl Junior College in Chicago for three years and then served from 1942 to 1947 in the Navy as instructor at the post graduate schools of the Naval Academy at Annapolis and the Monterey.

He joined the Hamilton faculty in 1947 and was chairman of the Department of Mathematics from 1950 to 1969. During these years he served on the major standing committees of the Hamilton faculty, and was chairman of the Committee on Studies at the time when the decision was made and implemented to enlarge the college. Through his initiative, Hamilton was awarded National Science Foundation summer institutes for teachers of mathematics for thirteen years, beginning in 1959, most of which were under his direction.

Brewster Gere was an accomplished mathematician and a sympathetic and effective teacher. In addition, he had the rare talent of getting things done without fuss or commotion. Working with a person and such even temper and kindly disposition was always a pleasure. Angry and unkind expressions were unknown to him. His concern was ever for those around him and never for himself. In the closing years of his life he had to cope with a gradually worsening and incurable physical disability. Steadfastly refusing to be dispirited by what to many of lesser person would have been a crushing discouragement, he continued his full time duties, maintaining always his serene and cheerful outlook. His strength and courage were a continuing inspiration to both colleagues and students.

The notice of his death in the Hamilton Alumni Review closed with these fitting words: “Brewster Gere will long be remembered as one who, for a quarter of a century, helped enrich the educational scene and the scientific life of Hamilton College.”