Tribute by Jim Dator, Futurist, University of Hawaii

Magda Cordell McHale died Thursday, February 21, in Buffalo, New York, according to SUNY Buffalo, where she taught. She was 87.

Magda and her husband, John McHale, were among the earliest and most important futurists. She was from Hungary and he from Scotland, and the two were like oil and water--or fire (Magda) and ice (John). They were a true couple in that one completed the other, so much so that when John died suddenly with no prior warning at 56, Magda struggled to go on without him.

But she did, magnificently, and carried on the work that they had begun in England (as founders of the kitsch and pop art movement called "The Independent Group"--indeed, John and Magda were the originators of the term "pop art"); brought to the US where they worked initially with Buckminster Fuller; then to the University of Houston where they established a futures center called the Center for Integrative Studies; and, after John's death, at the School of Architecture and Planning of the State University of New York at Buffalo.

Magda (flamboyant, gruff and always stylishly dressed) was a superb artist while John (quiet and shy in his tweedy jacket and absurd bowtie) was a gifted writer. Between the two of them they produced excellent textual/visual presentations of trends, emerging issues, and new and interconnected ideas. They were always tirelessly searching for something "new", and excelled in seeing, early on, patterns that most of us did not see until much later, and presenting them to us in very memorable ways.

Both of them helped establish the World Futures Studies Federation and the World Academy of Art and Science. John was Secretary General of the latter during the 1970s and Magda was active on the Board of the Academy until her death.

The two of them were resident scholars at the East West Center
immediately following the Hawaii 2000 activities of 1970 and made a big impact on Hawaii for the several years they were here. Hawaii also greatly influenced them as well and they always recalled their days here with enormous fondness.

During the time I was President of the World Futures Studies Federation, Magda was the North American Vice President. She was a constant advisor and friend, phoning me several times a week to tell me what to do, and tireless in her insistence that everyone in the Federation should exhibit both the highest scholarship--building on the work of prior futurists--as well as displaying utmost creativity and novelty. Otherwise, they should shut up, she would insist. She did not suffer fools gladly--I was her only exception--and would invariably sit in the back of the room during conferences muttering in her extremely deep and gruff voice about the "shit" that the "idiot" up front was saying.

The absence of that voice and mind and spirit diminishes us.

Read another obituary from The Buffalo News