In 1973, Eastern Connecticut State University was considering the construction of an outdoor amphitheatre in our arboretum. Buckminster Fuller was working with an engineering firm in Boston and was invited by the University to oversee the design of the amphitheatre. I had lunch with him on the day he visited the campus. During lunch, he doodled a bucky ball on a napkin and explained to me its structure and crucial angles. When finished, he signed the drawing “In Friendship, Buckminister Fuller, November 1, 1973.” The napkin is framed and currently hangs in my house. Sadly, the amphitheatre wasn’t constructed.

Ahhh……..Bucky Fuller!

After reading a few of his books I became spellbound. Everything he says seems to say “freedom” in one way or another and after reading Critical Path I noted in me that there had been a real change, an expansion in the way I percieved the world around me..I had actually changed in a fundamental way. I begun to actually see as opposed to intellectually understand the interrelationships between all things, a unity of purpose and design, a miraculous dance of one thing seemingly seperated in space and time into the many.

So….when I saw that he was going to visit Victoria B.C. and speak at the Royal Theatre there, I had to go…He had become somewhat responsible for this new mutant after all and I had to bring friends and relatives to point the blame at him in person.

He looked like the most mischeivious of gnomes, up on that stage, as he demonstrated, and spoke about the models he had brought.

One model in particular stands out in my recollection, and it was composed of those white plastic balls I have seen used so often to make christmas decorations where you can stick various items into the ball for a display of some sort. Well Bucky had glued a few of these balls together to form this unrecognizable thing, and he had two of these conglomerate lumps both looking identical to each other.

As Bucky spoke describing life, the model, and geometry in particular, he asked us all in the audience what he had in his hands if he were to put them together, And of course he knew we would be, and we were, non plused, noone knew.

So with his usual style and mischeviousness he waited and then placed them together in a particular arrangement…..and… Miraculous!!…. They formed, a tetrahedran!!! The whole audience whistled or applauded, and I both.

Now as I describe this it seems …”Whats the big deal, a tetrahedran?” on the surface. It was not just the model or that it fit together, just so, to produce this tetrahdran. It was just plastic after all…No there was something magical in both Bucky, and the model, and us, the crowd that watched. Somehow it seemed that the Universe spoke honestly at the moment right through Bucky, the model, to us, and it seemed to say in capital letters that; through this single fundamental unit we call the tetrahedran, lies truth, freedom from slavery, dignity, and our enlightenment as a race.

What a moment! This little fellow, this little gnome, full of life, effervesence and full of bull, and integrity, through his hard work, suffering, intelligence, and honesty, and in this moment, had come a revelation in understanding and elegance, the mechanics, principles of the Universe. And we felt it, as basic and as simple as it seemed, we were rightfully in awe.

Did I ever meet him …Nope. But then..I think I did…. and in so doing I surely met my self.

Ahhhh Bucky how we miss you.

When I went to engineering college in 1951, we were treated to a lecture by someone named R. Buckmister Fuller. I had never heard of him before but I attended out of curiosity.

Here was an advanced thinker advocating better ways to live — through ecology, engineering and interpersonal relationships.

I changed my major from electrical engineering to architecture — Bucky excelled in both. Since then I have never missed the opportunity to listen to his wisdom. I only wish he was still around to espouse his vision for a better life for all the inhabitants of our planet.

I met Bucky while he was a scholar in residence at San Jose State College in the mid 60’s. He was speaking at the Friday Night Lecture Series and I went to interview him during the intermission. I was doing research on how various intellectuals regarded recreation and leisure time as qualities of human existence. His responses were very interesting.

He felt that his work was his recreation because he enjoyed it and it was his choice. He felt that leisure was when he slept. He told me that in order to remain as productive as possible he would sleep every 6 hours for two hours and do this around the clock.

Perhaps another memorable thing about Bucky was how he held a megaphone to his ear when students asked him questions. A rather awkward hearing aid but then who was going to question this undeniable genius and amazing thinker.

During his 6 week stay on campus the promotional slogan was “Make Life Fuller with Bucky”.

Like most people who ever met him, I wish he was still here to teach us more.

Hung out with his daughter Allegra at a retreat for a few days to try to realize one of his projects - the geoscope. The death of his first daughter was apparently pivotal so it was interesting in that sense as well - but the main thing was to kind of get the value system from her. Anyway this was at the Buckminister Fuller institute in NYC. Still thinking about this problem but it was more than we could build in 3 days of course. Always liked his maxim about doing the most good for the most people and I use it as a credo for my own conduct.

I heard him speak at a small community college on the S.Coast of Oregon in 1970. I was 16. I wouldn’t have gone to listen to some guy named “Richard Fuller”. Impressed with his horn-rimmed glasses and domes, thinking he was a true geek, I was more amazed that he thought coming to a logging community was worth his time and energy. I sat on the hardwood floor of the basketball court.

Today I give a PowerPoint presentation about a project I’m working on. The last slide contains a quote, my favorite quote from Buckminster Fuller, 1970, “The Things to do are: the things that need doing, that you see need to be done, and that no one else seems to see need to be done.” It’s a difficult quote. I ask people to read it aloud with me. It gives me chills to feel the strength he has given us all.