by Thomas T. K. Zung
reprinted from BFI newsletter Trimtab, Vol.17 no.2
On July 12th, 2004, Fuller's 109th birthday, the U.S. Postal Service is releasing a commemorative Buckminster Fuller Stamp! 2004 was chosen as the year to release the stamp as it marks the 50th anniversary of Fuller's patent for the geodesic dome. The image by artist Boris Artzybasheff originally appeared on the cover of TIME magazine on January 10th, 1964. Special thanks go out to BFI Board Member Thomas Zung, who spearheaded this effort for a commemorative USPS stamp. Read below about how the stamp came to be.
One would think that just the mere mention of Bucky Fuller's name would herald a stamp from the USPS. But, there are rules and regulations, what one might call the piggly-wigg-lies. Securing the issue of the Bucky stamp was not easy; important things are never easy, but are well worth the effort.
To be fair, the Postal Service receives literally thousands and thousands of suggestions for new postage stamps every year. The stamp issue is very limited, and the Citizen's Stamp Advisory Committee was established in 1957 to review suggestions and make recommendations to the Postmaster General. They generally discourage family members from making suggestions, and prefer recommendations based on national interest, historical perspectives, and significant anniversaries. The Committee decides on new stamp issues two to three years in advance of the issue date in order to provide lead-in time for planning, design, production, and distribution of the new stamp.
To campaign for a Bucky stamp, I joined with the Buckminster Fuller Institute and formed the Bucky Stamp Campaign. At first we had hoped to use Fuller's Centenary in 1995 as a catalyst, and to have the stamp issued to coincide with the celebration of Bucky at New York City's St. John the Divine Cathedral. But we were disappointed in 1992. Still, we kept the campaign alive.
The next attempt was in 1998, in time for a 2003 stamp commemorating the 20th anniversary of Fuller's death. After the staff applications are culled, a committee headed by the manager of the Postal Development Stamp Services forwards potential contenders to the American Philatelic Society (no ties to the United States Postal Service) for a background check of the nominee--history, qualifications, ten years after death, a U.S. citizen, etc.
We had the good fortune to correspond with Kathleen Wunderly, the Society's Educational Director. Although the American Philatelic Society does not officially make recommendations, she was encouraging, and wrote this amusing paragraph after we were turned down a second time: “I would think that a Fuller stamp should be a given, that it would be accepted as a matter of course, but what do I know. I thought the same thing about a proposal for the bicentennial of Old Ironsides for 1997, instead in that year we were presented with Bugs Bunny.”
They say that persistence prevails, and in May 2001, E. J. Applewhite, Shirley Sharkey and I met in Washington, DC, with the Treasurer of the United States, the Honorable Mary Ellen Withrow; it is her agency that mints our money and prints our postage stamps. She was very generous with her time; she even signed some dollar bills for souvenirs (but no free samples). She suggested that we write the Chair of the Stamp Committee, Professor I. Michael Heyman, the former head of the Smithsonian Institute, about the Fuller stamp.
We needed letters of support, the more the better, especially from luminaries. We thank all those who wrote letters, particularly those who re-wrote letters with a change in date. As an interesting note, we were able to gather more letters after our office designed a prototype Bucky stamp. The design was printed on page 372 in Buckminster Fuller Anthology for a New Millennium (St. Martin's Press), along with a letter from Tony Huston, who wrote, “Putting him [Fuller] on a stamp will encourage his memory to affect society and inspire our children to make the world a better place. In other words, honoring him in this way is not just for his sake, but for ours.”
BFI played a major part in the letter-writing campaign, and we are especially grateful to the staff and board for their time and effort. The final design for the stamp is the well-known TIME magazine cover of Bucky, which was always a favorite of Fuller's. The issue of the stamp will be on Bucky's birthday, July 12th, 2004, commemorating the 50th anniversary of his famous geodesic dome. As a footnote, Bucky's best friend, the sculptor Isamu Noguchi, will also have a postage stamp issued in May 2004. How very appropriate!
Professor Allegra Fuller Snyder, former Chairwoman of BFI and Bucky's daughter, puts it best about the stamp campaign: “If one has an idea and a commitment, one can make something happen, but it takes a great deal of time as well as a great deal of effort.” Bucky might say “Amen!” to that.
BFI Board Member Thomas Zung is an architect and former partner of Buckminster Fuller's. Thomas greatly contributes to educational projects at a multitude of colleges and universities and was instrumental in the set up and take down of the exhibit Buckminster Fuller: Your Private Sky that toured Europe and Japan. Zung also edited and authored the recent book Buckminster Fuller: Anthology for the New Milllennium. Recently, Thomas Zung was named Distinguished Senior Fellow to the Stanford University Libraries.
BFI President's Message
by Joshua Arnow July 2004
The US Postal Service release of the Fuller commemorative stamp represents a significant public recognition of Fuller's life experiment and its continuing relevance to the state of our world today. Stamp ceremonies have taken place at Stanford University (home of the Fuller Archive) the AIA chapter headquarters in NY, San Diego; Carbondale, Illinois; St. Louis; and Rockland, Maine.
Bucky lived his life convinced that the most urgent design project humans will ever face is --- to meet the needs of all humanity without undermining the ecological integrity of the earth's natural systems.
After 50 years of ground breaking research and designing solutions to real world problems, he confirmed that we have a historically unprecedented option, "an option for all humanity to 'make it' successfully on this planet; in our lifetimes."
Although to many, it seemed that Bucky was an optimist, he was a hard nosed "optionist," always careful to point out that two things: first; our option to make it hinges on implementing a comprehensive design revolution; and second; "whether it is to be utopia or oblivion will be a touch-and-go relay race right up to the final moment."
The geodesic dome symbolizes the essence of the do-more-with-less design strategy that Bucky championed. It elegantly demonstrates how incomparably light, strong and energy efficient a structure can be when you employ nature's principles of design.
So, the key message I and thousands of people around the world grasped from Bucky's many inventions; lectures and books was a clear sense that making the world work for everyone is what humanity's big picture design project is all about. Although the human predicament is more "touch and go" than ever before, his message still resounds with hope for the future, a hope that comes from knowing how much individual initiative can and does make a difference.
On behalf of the Institute I extend a special acknowledgement to Thomas Zung: Fuller's partner in Fuller, Sadao and Zung Architects; editor of the book "Buckminster Fuller: Anthology for the New Millennium" and a member of our board since 1983.
It was Thomas's steady vision and tireless efforts; beginning in 1992; that made the Bucky stamp a reality. Thanks to his individual initiative countless new sparks of curiosity about Buckminster Fuller will no doubt be activated -- and not a moment too soon!
I'm sure many of you have heard that we have recently moved our offices to the Williamsburg section of Brooklyn.
For the past 5 years we've been operating from Sebastopol California, one of the Bay Area's northern suburbs. Sebastopol was chosen as a low cost, low profile, re-tooling site that was close in proximity to a number of active board members. Our move there coincided with the decision to move Fuller's remarkable personal archive to Stanford University's Department of Special Collections.
For 16 years prior, along with producing educational programs, caring for and sharing the Archive with the public had been the primary focus of BFI. We provided access to a steady stream of researchers and curators as well as a number of authors writing books about Bucky. We also produced numerous exhibits in our own gallery space and several traveling exhibits.
Even though the legacy of Fuller's Archive was central to our identity for so many years, the advent of the internet, a phenomenon right out of the Bucky play book, began to trigger our own organizational evolution. We ultimately saw that as a small non-profit, digital media and the web could provide a quantum leap in our ability to provide access to the essence of Fuller's approach to solving global problems.
As a result of an extended strategic planning process we chose to focus our attention on -- introducing a new generation to the contemporary and future applications of Bucky's design science legacy --- and serving as a collaborative hub (online and in-person) for a global community of design innovators --- providing resources for networking, learning, and pioneering whole systems design.
In particular, the move to NY was in many ways inspired and nurtured by our work with Elizabeth Thompson, our new acting Executive Director. Together with DJ Brumfield our new Operations Director, they have infused BFI with fresh perspective and a revitalizing intensity that is so natural to New York style executive talent.
The July commemorative issue of BFI's Trimtab newsletter highlights the details of our New York home and the backgrounds of our staff.
With a top notch, well networked team in place, enough cannot be said for the mileage that is already starting to be gained in just 3 months in our new location in one of the centers for art, culture, and design.
I want to give you a brief history of my involvement with BFI. Geographically speaking, my East Coast connection - with Bucky and BFI has come full-circle. It all started with hearing Bucky speak for the first time in New York's Town Hall in 1976. The only words that I could repeat after that first encounter with Bucky was, "we have an option to make it" and obviously those very words have kept ringing in my ears ever since.
Soon after this 1st experience of Bucky I attended a planetary planning symposium produced by Medard Gabel and Howard Brown two of Bucky's young colleagues. The symposium included an opportunity to work as a summer research intern for a few weeks in Bucky's Philadelphia office. That got me hooked; whenever bucky was lecturing within reasonable driving distance I was usually in the audience. 7 years later, in 1983, I helped organize a full day event at NY's Hunter College called "Integrity Day" that event eventually led to my being invited to join the Board of Directors in 1985. From 1985 to 1998 my role as a Board Member remained relatively passive, as I was busy raising 3 children (still am) and cutting my teeth in the real estate development and construction business. But after 20 years of conventional business and living in a world getting so much closer to the brink I was ready for a much more active role.
In 1999 I began my service as Board President [after serving as a Board Member since 1985] and ever since, I have progressively stepped up my commitment of both time and money to what I believe is a very promising investment — the future of BFI.
Here's the thinking behind my commitment: if the design revolution is going to reach a necessary critical mass in time we must deeply inspire a whole new generation of comprehensive anticipatory designers. With the legacy and good will associated with our organization's namesake; with the genius and resources of our growing network, with the right team (staff and board) and a collaborative spirit; BFI is in an ideal position to make a real difference in building this critical mass. That's what I am passionately and patiently investing in. For me the move to NY is a major milestone for BFI toward realizing the incredible potential we all know exists for Bucky's legacy.
BFI's agenda for the rest of 2004 & 2005 is all about designing and building a scalable technology and program platform.
To take full advantage of our valuable new location in Brooklyn, New York, we will be developing strategic partnerships; especially with the architectural community and design community in NYC to begin co-producing in-person events and educational courses.
BFI is also developing its own contemporary application of Fuller's design science methodology. For three years we've been hard at work on a project called Earthscope™:
You can find out more about the project at earthscope.com.
We're not going to be able to do all this necessary work without your support. So please consider becoming a member of BFI or upgrading your membership. This is just one way you can be a part of our effort to support and grow this network so that together we can better prepare the next generation to meet the serious design challenges ahead.
On July 12, 2004, Fuller's 109th birthday, the U.S. Postal Service released a commemorative Buckminster Fuller Stamp!
2004 was chosen as the year to release the stamp as it marks the 50th anniversary of Fuller's patent for the Geodesic Dome.
The First Day Issue Ceremony at Stanford University on Monday July 12 was a great success! Thanks to all who joined us!
Bucky fans celebrated the release of the postage stamp all across the country...
In Palo Alto, CA at Stanford University, home of the Fuller Archives:
Former astronaut Dr. Buzz Aldrin, left, and Allegra Fuller Snyder have a chat after the unveiling of a new postage stamp at Stanford, July 12th.
In Carbondale, IL at Fuller's former Dome Home;
In Rockland Maine at The Farnsworth Art Museum;
In San Diego, CA in Horton Square;
In St. Louis, MO at the Missouri Botanical Gardens;
and in New York City at the Center for Architecture:
Longtime Fuller colleague Herman Wolf joined us in NYC from Bridgeport, CT.
From left, the NYC ceremony speakers: Raschelle Miley, USPS; Jonathan Marvel, Rogers & Marvel Architects, Fuller's great-nephew; Joshua Arnow, BFI Board president; Elizabeth Thompson, BFI Acting Executive Director.