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HIGHLIGHTS OF “AN AVERAGE MAN’S” LIFE

CHRONOLOGY OF THE LIFE OF R. BUCKMINSTER FULLER

1895—Richard Buckminster Fuller is born in Milton, Massachusetts. 1899—Enters kindergarten where he builds the first octet truss using dried peas and toothpicks. Is diagnosed as nearsighted, gets his first glasses and sees objects clearly for the first time in his life.

1904—Enters Milton Academy, Lower School.

1910—Bucky’s father, Richard Buckminster Fuller Sr. dies.

1913—Graduates from Milton Academy and enters Harvard University (Class of 1917).

1914—Expelled from Harvard and sent to be an apprentice millwright in remote Canadian mill.

1915—Reinstated at Harvard and expelled for a second time. Takes a job with Armour & Co in New York.

1917—Enlists in Navy Reserve. Marries Anne Hewlett.

1918—Promoted to lieutenant and assigned as aide to admiral commanding all transports in the Atlantic during World War I. First child, Alexandra, born.

1919—Appointed Communications Officer on the USS George Washington and supervises President Woodrow Wilson having the first ever transatlantic radiotelephone conversation (from France to the United States).

1922—Alexandra dies in his arms just prior to her fourth birthday. Bucky feels responsible for her not having better housing and he begins his lifelong quest to provide excellent shelter for all people.

Begins working as an entrepreneur, founding Stockade Building Corporation, manufacturing buildings with a revolutionary new technology.

1926—Is fired as president of Stockade Systems when the company is consistently unprofitable because Bucky has chosen to build good buildings rather than make a profit.

1927—Second child, Allegra, born.

Considers himself a failure and contemplates suicide. Has mystical experience in which he is told that he does not have the right to kill himself and that he will only speak the truth from then on. Dedicates himself to the service of all humanity. Writes and privately publishes first book, 4D Timelock.

1929—Displays model of 4D round house at Marshall Field Department Store. Coins and copyrights the word “Dymaxion” to describe house and other inventions.

1933—Establishes Dymaxion Corporation to successfully design and build first prototype Dymaxion Vehicle.

1935—Prototype Dymaxion Vehicles #2 and #3 are completed and displayed at the Chicago World’s Fair. Writes Nine Chains to the Moon.

1936—Meets with Albert Einstein who is amazed that Fuller could conceive of a practical application for Einstein’s theories.

1938—Nine Chains to the Moon published. Joins Fortune magazine as science and technology consultant.

1940—Works on development of Dymaxion Deployment Units at Butler Manufacturing in Kansas City.

1941—Quits drinking and smoking as an anniversary gift for Anne and to further his mission without his behavior as a hindrance.

1942—Joins US Board of Economic Warfare as Director of Mechanical Engineering.

1943—Full-color, punch-out rendition of Dymaxion Sky-Ocean World Map is published in Life magazine resulting in the largest printing of the magazine.

1944—Begins design and production of prototype Dymaxion House in conjunction with Beech Aircraft of Wichita, Kansas.

1946—Is awarded the first cartographic project patent since 1900 for Dymaxion Map.

1947—Invents Geodesic Dome. First teaches at Black Mountain College.

1948—Teaches at MIT.

1949—Begins extensive travels responding to speaking invitations worldwide.

1952—Begins work on Ford Motor Dome in Detroit. Constructs first Geoscope with students at Cornell University. Receives Award of Merit, American Institute of Architects.

1954—Receives patent for Geodesic Dome. Receives first of his eventual forty-seven honorary degrees, Doctor of Design from North Carolina State University. Asked to design a geodesic dome to cover Dodger Stadium.

1955—First Distant Early Warning (DEW) Line Radomes are installed in Northern Canada.

1956—Becomes visiting lecturer at Southern Illinois University.

1957—Union Tank Car Dome in Louisiana and Kaiser Hawaii Symphony Dome are erected.

1958—Makes the first of many annual circuits traveling around the world speaking (primarily at universities).

1959—Appointed professor and awarded honorary doctor of arts degree at SIU, Carbondale IL. Sets up global headquarters at SIU.

He and Anne move into a Carbondale geodesic dome home.

1961—Granted patent for octet truss he first built in 1899 at the age of four.

1962—Appointed as Charles Eliot Norton Professor of Poetry, Harvard University.

Establishes “Inventory of World Resources, Human Trends and Needs” (World Game) at SIU. Granted patent for tensegrity structure.

1963—Publishes the books No More Secondhand God, Ideas and Integrities, and Education Automation. Appointed to NASA’s Advanced Structures Research Team, which adopts his octet truss and geodesic dome as primary space structures.

1964—Subject of Time magazine cover story. Publishes Design Science Decade: World Inventory, Human Trends and Needs.

1966—Completes design for USA Pavilion at ’67 Montreal World’s Fair. Inaugurates World Game at SIU.

1967—Featured in Saturday Review cover story. Montreal Expo Dome draws record attendance of 5.3 million people in six months. Elected to honorary membership in Phi Beta Kappa (Harvard) on the occasion of the fifty-year reunion of the Class of 1917 (from which he was expelled in his first year). Granted patent for star tensegrity.

1968—Elected to National Academy of Design and World Academy of Arts & Sciences. Appointed Distinguished University Professor at SIU

1969—Leads first public World Game workshop. Delivers Jawaharlal Nehru Memorial Lecture. Publishes Operating Manual for Spaceship Earth and Utopia or Oblivion.

1970—Publishes I Seem to Be a Verb. Installed as Master Architect for Life by Alpha Ro Chi Architectural Fraternity.

1971—Presents proposal for “Old Man River City” in East St. Louis, and it is accepted.

NBC broadcasts documentary Buckminster Fuller on Spaceship Earth.

1972—Appointed “World Fellow in Residence” by a consortium of Philadelphia institutions.

Publishes Intuition and Buckminster Fuller to the Children of Earth. Delivers over one hundred twenty “thinking out loud” lectures around the world. Is featured as interview in Playboy magazine.

1973—Establishes publication and research office in Philadelphia.

Granted patents for floating breakwater and tensegrity dome. Moves to Philadelphia.

1974—Delivers over one hundred fifty “thinking out loud” lectures around the world. Granted a New York State architect’s license.

1975—Publishes Synergetics, The Geometry of Thinking. Is elected International President of the World Society for Ekistics. Granted patent for non-symmetrical tension-integrity structures. Inducted as a fellow in the American Institute of Architects.

1976—Participates in drafting “Declaration of Principles and Rights for American Children.”

Publishes And It Came To Pass—Not To Stay. Completes work on world’s first tetrahedronal book, Tetrascroll, which is published in limited edition.

1977—Designs and develops two new prototype geodesic domes, “Pinecone Dome” and “Fly’s Eye Dome.”

Travels on lecture of Far East sponsored by US government.

1978—Appears in ad for Honda Civic.

Becomes Senior Partner in NY architectural firm Fuller & Sadao.

1979—Publishes Synergetics 2, expanding on Synergetics and Buckminster Fuller on Education. Becomes Chairman of the Board of R. Buckminster Fuller, Sadao & Zung Architects of Ohio. Becomes Senior Partner of Buckminster Fuller Associates, London, England.

1980—Granted patent for tensegrity truss. Delivers over ninety “thinking out loud” lectures around the world.

Moves to Pacific Palisades, CA, near his daughter Allegra and her family.

1981—Publishes Critical Path. Inducted into the “Housing Hall of Fame.”

1982—Publishes three books: Grunch of Giants, Inventions, and Humans in Universe. Designs and supervises Dymaxion “Big Map” the size of a basketball court and displays it to members of the US Congress. Delivers over seventy “thinking out loud” lectures around the world. Inducted into the Engineering and Science Hall of Fame. Granted patent for hanging storage shelf unit.

1983—Honored in daylong “Integrity Day” presentations in several US cities. Dies July 1 in Los Angeles, CA.