With thanks to Joel C. Thompson, Connecticut Post
"I will always think of Herman's wonderful energy and excitement, his sense of the future," said Allegra Fuller Snyder, of Herman Wolf.
Working on several project up until a heart attack struck him down at 93, Herman Wolf died on Oct 6, Wolf for the past number years was had been working on a book on Fuller. He felt it was almost finished but he was still working on it. Several pages lay open on his desk when he died . It is the hope of the BFI that there will be found a way to complete it and to make it available through the Institute.
Wolf was also continuing to work on public relations projects at Action for Bridgeport Community Development.
"Hermans' life struggle was involved with improving the quality of life, leveling the playing field , for all people. "said Charles Tisdale, executive director of ABCD. "He was working up to the last minutes of his life."
Herman Wolf and Bucky Fuller were life long friends. Herman worked closely with Bucky from 1944-6 on the Dymaxion Dwelling Machine Corporation which later became Fuller Houses, Bucky was chairman of the board and chief engineer, while Herman Wolf served as president of that company.
Herman was instrumental in contacting labor officials, such as Walter Reuther, of the UAW, and Harvey Brown, President of the international Association of Machinists, who later joined the Dwelling Machine Board, --and the War Manpower commission. They were excited by the Dymaxion Dwelling Machine because it could be produced by the aircraft industry. Late in World War 2 the aircraft industry was in great trouble due to labor shortages. The workers didn't feel there was any post war future for the industry and began quitting their jobs to go elsewhere where there might be a better future. Reuther and Brown saw that the Dymaxion House could provide immediate solutions to the looming post war housing shortage and might provide permanent employment in the aircraft field because there was no basic difference between the fabrication of aluminum parts for the Dymaxion house and for the fuselage of the most advanced B29 aircraft. A meeting was arranged with the Beach Aircraft Company in Wichita, Kansas and it was agreed that the Dymaxion company could come in and have access to the tools and top engineers and mechanics in a going aircraft plant on a cost basis without any capital investment.
The Dwelling Machine was produced on machinery at the aircraft plant and with aircraft industries extraordinary structural capabilities with aircraft materials and aircraft tools...
It was made so it could be installed anywhere.
While a prototype was made it wasn't possible to raise enough funding to actually turn this dream into an industry, even though thousands of people sent in money to pay for their Dwelling Machine when it was announced in Fortune Magazine. Although this complex of non-rustable alloy components appears to be expensive Fuller said "It did so much with so little, and with a total poundage so small that Beech aircraft was able to make firm proposal to manufacture the Dwelling Machines at a cost of only 1800 dollars.
Lacking the 10 million dollars necessary for tooling the Dymaxion Dwelling Machine for a 20,000 units per year production, the Wichita experiment ended. Two prototypes had been ordered by the Air Force and later resold to Fuller's project. They were ultimately acquired by a Kansas oil man, who combined them to form a house sans rotating ventilator, " His architectural additions and modifications in effect," said Fuller, "forever grounded this aeroplane."
Herman Wolf at the Center for Architecture, NYC for the release of the Bucky stamp last year
In the Ford Museum in Dearborn, Michigan acquired the two prototypes of the house and took over four years to erect them again into one house which is now on full exhibit at the Ford Museum. Herman was at the opening in December 2001 and was excited to see this important project fully acknowledged and demonstrated He also did an oral history of the project which is in the museum's archives.
After the Wichita closure Herman returned to Connecticut and to very active involvement in Connecticut Democratic political campaigns from the 1950s through the 1970s as well as with Bridgeport's economic development.
Wolf was as a chief campaign aide in the successful Democratic gubernatorial campaign of Abe Ribicoff in 1954 and 1958, John Dempsey in 1966 and Ella Grasso in 1974. Wolf was also an executive aide to Ribicoff from 1955 to 1958. He participated, as well, in Ribicoff's successful campaigns for U.S. Senate in 1962 and 1968. Wolf represented more that 100 clients, including United Technologies, Guinness, the Ford Foundation and the NAACP.
Wolf, born in Far Rockaway, N.Y. and a graduate of the University of Chicago, he was an active member of the Socialist Party in his early years, serving as a labor editor and publicity agent.
The world has lost a renowned visionary. Advisor to statesmen, inventors and politicians, including Norman Thomas, Abe Ribicoff, Ella Grasso, John F. Kennedy and Bucky Fuller, he was a pioneer behind the scenes for 75 years.
In lieu of flowers, donations may be made to ABCD, 1070 Park Ave, Bridgeport, CT, 06604, or The Buckminster Fuller Institute, www.bfi.org.
