The Passing of Bill Perk
We at BFI are saddened to learn of the passing of Bill Perk. As many of you know Bill was a long-time associate of Bucky’s at Southern Illinois University – Carbondale in the Design Department. Bill was central in preserving Bucky’s Dome Home.
He will be missed by the larger Buckminster Fuller community!
The following is excerpted from Obituary for Harry Frederick William “Bill” Perk:
Harry Frederick William “Bill” Perk, age 94, of Carbondale, passed away on Monday, September 12, 2022 at 8:00 a.m. in his sleep at his home with his sons by his side.
Bill taught in the Design Department at Southern Illinois University – Carbondale for over 30 years, drawn to academia by his mentor, R. Buckminster Fuller, after an early career at the RAND Corporation and ITT. His dedication to cybernetics and comprehensive design science inspired a variety of extracurricular projects, including but not limited to his involvement with Fuller’s Old Man River’s City Project in East St. Louis, multiple World Game workshops, capital homesteading, the Team Syntegrity protocol, and promoting Emergy analysis. Bill was an ardent supporter of progressive causes and took pride in being a World Citizen, with a World Passport to prove it. He also helped commercialize the Rombix puzzle. One of his final projects was to support the purchase and restoration of R. Buckminster Fuller’s dome home at 407 S. Forest Street in Carbondale as a National Historic Register-listed museum. In addition to being a voracious reader, some of his hobbies across his 94 years included radio-controlled aircraft, tennis, jogging, kite flying–for which he cut a distinctive figure by using fly rods to launch his kites–Pilates, and Kriegspiel. In dress as in life, Bill marched to a different drummer, from his ubiquitous bolo ties to his fondness for Mexican guayabera shirts, pockets bulging with notebooks, cards, colored pens, eyeglasses, and whatever new productivity device occupied his fancy.
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