Buckminister Fuller

Background

Much of his youth was spent on Bear Island off the coast of Maine. Although he had trouble with geometry, he was quite inventive. He made items from materials he brought home from the woods, and also made his own tools. He experimented with different designs, such as an apparatus for human propulsion of small boats. He eventually became a machinist.

Buckminister Fuller studied at Harvard, but was expelled twice. He was a non-conformist in the college environment. Several years later, he received a Sc.D. from Bates College in Lewiston, Maine.

He worked in Canada as a mechanic in a textile mill, as well as a laborer for the meat-packing industry. He served in the U.S. Navy in World War I as a radio operator, as an editor of a publication, and as a crash-boat commander. In 1917, he married Anne Hewlett. In the early 1920s, he and his father-in-law developed the Stockade Building System for producing light-weight, weatherproof, and fireproof housing. The company eventually failed.

He was bankrupt by age 32, jobless, and living in public, low-income housing in Chicago, Illinois. When his young daughter, Alexandra, died in 1922 from polio and spinal meningitis, he became depressive, drank heavily and contemplated suicide. He then had a change of heart, and finally chose to embark on "an experiment, to find what a single individual could contribute to changing the world and benefiting all humanity."

While teaching at Black Mountain College in North Carolina during the summers of 1948 and 1949, with the support of a group of professors and students, he began reinventing a project that would make him famous: the geodesic dome. The geodesic dome had been created some 30 years earlier by Dr. Walther Bauersfeld, but Fuller was awarded United States patents, and is credited for popularizing this type of structure.

Over the next half-century, Buckminister Fuller developed many ideas, designs and inventions including practical, inexpensive shelter and transportation. His diary, which was later named the Dymaxion Chronofile, is where he documented his life, philosophy and ideas. He also had twenty-eight publications.

James Fitzgibbon, whom he met at Washington University in 1955, became a close friend and colleague. Working as a designer, scientist, developer, and writer, he lectured for many years around the world. He collaborated at Southern Illinois University with the designer John McHale. He was devoted to "applying the principles of science to solving the problems of humanity."

Fuller believed in renewable sources of energy, such as solar and wind derived electricity. He envisioned an age of "omni-successful education and sustenance of all humanity." The American Humanist Association named him the 1969 Humanist of the Year.

Honors

Buckminister Fuller has influenced over three generations with his innovations. He was awarded 28 United States patents, honorary doctorates, and in 1960 was awarded the Frank P. Brown Medal from The Franklin Institute. On January 16, 1970, he received the Gold Medal award from the American Institute of Architects. He also received many other awards, including the Presidential Medal of Freedom presented to him on February 23, 1983 by President Ronald Reagan.

Philosophy

He was the grandson of a Unitarian minister, and Fuller became an early environmental activist. Aware of the finite resources of the planet, he promoted the term “ephemeralization”, which essentially means doing more with less. He advocated recycling, and introduced “synergetics”, which refers to total system behavior, well before "synergy" became a popular term.

His ideas and philosophy permeated the fields of engineering, design, and architecture. He was concerned about sustainability and human survival under our current structures, while remaining optimistic about the future. He defined wealth in terms of knowledge, as the "technological ability to protect, nurture, support, and accommodate all growth needs of life." He saw cooperation as the optimum survival strategy.

Buckminister Fuller contributed greatly to society and has made a lasting impact on current thought. He will continue to influence future generations. He made a significant contribution to housing, transportation, and also alternative map projection (designed to show the Earth's continents with minimum distortion when projected or printed on a flat surface). He overcame great loss in his life, and managed to make a major impact in the lives of others and on the entire planet. Click here for the Transforming Child Behavior Home Page.

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