Timeline

Born in Milton, Massachusetts, July 12,1895, son of Richard Buckminster and Caroline Wolcott (Andrews).

Fuller attended:

Milton Academy, Massachusetts, 1904-13
Harvard, 1913-15
U.S. Naval Academy, Annapolis, Maryland (spec.) 1917

Married Anne Hewlett, July 12,1917 at Rock Hall, Lawrence, Long Island, New York
Children: Alexandra Willets (dec.), Allegra (Fuller Snyder)
Grandchildren: Alexandra, Jaime

Chronology

1914-1915

Apprentice machine fitter, Richards, Atkinson, & Haserick, Boston, importers of cotton mill machinery.

1915-1917

Various apprentice jobs, Armour & Co, New York City.

1917-1919

Ensign U.S.N.R. to Lieutenant U.S.N. United States Navy, World War I.

1919-1921

Assistant Export Manager, Armour & Company.

1922

National Account Sales Manager, Kelly – Springfield Truck Company.

1922-1927

President, Stockade Building System, 240 Building Operations.

1927-1932

President, Stockade Building System, 240 Building Operations.

1930-1932

Editor, Publisher, Shelter magazine.
Assistant to Director of Research, Pierce Foundation & American Radiator Standard Manufacturing Company; produced mass-production kitchen and bathroom back to back.

1932-1936

Director and Chief Engineer, Dymaxion Corporation; Bridgeport, Connecticut; produced 3 Dymaxion Cars.

1936-1938

Assistant to Director, Research and Development, Phelps Dodge Corporation.

1938-1940

Science and Technology Consultant, Fortune magazine.

1940-1950

Vice President, Chief Engineer, Dymaxion Company, Inc.,
Delaware, Associated with Butler Manufacturing Company.
Produced Dymaxion Dwelling Unit.

1942-1944

Chief Mechanical Engineer, US Board of Economic Warfare, World War II.
Special Assistant to Deputy Director, US Foreign Economic Adminstration.

1944-1946

Chairman of Board, Chief Engineer, Dymaxion Dwelling Machine Corporation (later) Fuller Houses, Beech Aircraft Company; Wichita, Kansas.

1946-1954

Chairman, Board of Trustees, Fuller Research Foundation, Wichita, Kansas.

1949-

President, Geodesics, Inc.; Forest Hills, New York.

1954-1959

President, Synergetics, Inc.; Raleigh, North Carolina.

1957-

President, Plydomes, Inc.; Des Moines, Iowa.

1959-1968

Research Professor, Design Science Exploration, Director of Inventory of World Resources, Human Trends and Needs.
Founder, Director of World Game.
Director of Design Science Decade of International Union of Architects, Southern Illinois University.

1959-

Chairman of the Board, Tetrahelix Corporation; Hamilton, Ohio.

1962-1963

Charles Eliot Norton Professor of Poetry, Harvard University.

1965-1967

The Architect of U.S. Pavilion at Expo ’67 Montreal World’s Fair.

1967-

President, Triton Foundation.
Architect in production of the Tetrahedronal Floating City for US Department of Housing and Urban Development.

1968-1970

Architect in collaboration with T. C. Howard of Synergetics, Inc., of the Tri-Centennial Pavilion of South Carolina at Greenfield, South Carolina.

1968

University Professor, Southern Illinois University.

1969

Architect, Samuel Beckett Theater, St. Peters College, Oxford University; Oxford, England.

1969-1970

Architect, geodesic auditorium, Kfar Mena Chem Kibbutz, Israel.
World Game seminars at Yale University and New York Studio School.

1971

Chief Architect, Old Man River Project (Environmental Domed City), East St. Louis, Illinois.
Architect, Project Toronto, Toronto, Canada.
Architect, Religious Center at Southern Illinois University, Edwardsville, Illinois.
Architect, design of St. Peters Theatre, London, England.

1972

World Fellow in Residence for the Consortium of the University of Pennsylvania, Bryan Mawr, Haverford and Swarthmore Colleges and the University City Science Center, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
Editor-at-Large, World Magazine; Consultant, DESIGN SCIENCE INSTITUTE.
Distinguished University Professor, Southern Illinois University, Carbondale and Edwardsville, Illinois.

1973

Continued as World Fellow in Residence, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania;
Continued as Distinguished University Professor, Southern Illinois University.
Chief Architect, Completion of the Design for the International Airports at New Delhi, Bombay, and Madras, India.
Author of Synergetics, Explorations in the Geometry of Thinking (published 1975).
Consultant, Design Science Institute.

1974

Continued as World Fellow in Residence, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
Continued as Distinguished University Professor, Southern Illinois University.
Consultant, Design Science Institute.
Consultant to Architects Team 3 (designing $200 million Penang Urban Center), Penang, Malaysia

1975

Continued as World Fellow in Residence, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
Continued as Consultant to Architects Team 3, Penang, Malaysia.
Appointed University Professor Emeritus, Southern Illinois University, Carbondale and Edwardsville, Illinois.
Appointed University Professor Emeritus, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
Member of Advisory Council on International Programs, Bryn Mawr College, Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania.
Member of Advisory Committee, Windworks, Mukwonago, Wisconsin.
Tutor in Design Science, International Community College, Los Angeles, California.
International President, World Society for Ekistics.

1976

Conceived and designed Synergetics exhibit for the opening of the Smithsonian / Cooper Hewitt Museum of Design.
Author, artist and designer of a limited edition lithograph ‘Tetrascroll’.
Author and designer of a limited edition of silk-screens Synergetics Poster Series.
Conceived and designed a limited edition of metal sculpture Jitterbug.
Author of And it Came to Pass, Not to Stay.
Continued as World Fellow in Residence, University City Science Center, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
Continued as University Professor Emeritus at Southern Illinois University, Carbondale and Edwardsville, Illinois.
Continued as University Professor Emeritus, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
Continued as consultant to Architects Team 3, Penang, Malaysia.
Continued as tutor in Design Science, International College, Los Angeles, California.
Continued as International President, World Society for Ekistics.

1977

Designed and developed two prototype geodesic domes “Pinecone Dome” and “Fly’s Eye Dome™”.
Lecturer, Far Eastern tour sponsored by the U.S. State Department/United States Information Agency.
Continued as World Fellow in Residence, University City Science Center, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
Continued as University Professor Emeritus, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
Continued as University Professor Emeritus, Southern Illinois University, Carbondale and Edwardsville, Illinois.
Continued as consultant to Architects Team 3, Penang, Malaysia.
Tutor in Design Science, International College, Los Angeles, California.
Completed term as International President, World Society for Ekistics.

1978

Continued as World Fellow in Residence, University City Science Center, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
Continued as University Professor Emeritus, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
Continued as University Professor Emeritus, Southern Illinois University, Carbondale and Edwardsville, Illinois.
Scholar in Residence, University of Massachusetts, Amherst, Massachusetts.
Tutor in Design Science, International College, Los Angeles, California.
Continued as senior partner, Fuller & Sadao PC.
Continued as consultant, Architects Team 3, Penang, Malaysia.

1979

Continued as World Fellow in Residence, University City Science Center, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
Continued as University Professor Emeritus, Southern Illinois University, Edwardsville and Carbondale, Illinois.
Continued as University Professor Emeritus, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
Continued as Tutor in Design Science, International College, Los Angeles, California.
Continued as senior partner, Fuller & Sadao PC, Long Island City, New York.
Chairman of the Board, R. Buckminster Fuller Sadao & Zung Architects, Inc., Cleveland, Ohio.
Senior partner, Buckminster Fuller Associates, London, England.
Author, Synergetics 2, Further Explorations in the Geometry of Thinking, published by Macmillan.
Author, R. Buckminster Fuller On Education, published by University of Massachusetts Press.
Continued as consultant, Architects Team 3, Penang, Malaysia.

1980

Continued as World Fellow in Residence, University City Science Center, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
Continued as University Professor Emeritus, Southern Illinois University, Edwardsville and Carbondale, Illinois.
Continued as University Professor Emeritus, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
Continued as senior partner, Fuller & Sadao PC.
Continued as Chairman of the Board, R. Buckminster Fuller Sadao & Zung Architects, Inc..
Continued as senior partner, Buckminster Fuller Associates.
Continued as Tutor in Design Science, International College.
Continued as consultant, Architects Team 3, Penang, Malaysia.
Author, Critical Path, to be published winter 1980-81 by St. Martin’s Press.

1981

Continued as World Fellow in Residence, University City Science Center, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
University Professor Emeritus, Southern Illinois University, Edwardsville and Carbondale, Illinois.
University Professor Emeritus, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
Continued as Senior Partner, Fuller & Sadao PC.
Continued as Chairman of the Board, R. Buckminster Fuller, Sadao & Zung Architects, Inc.
Continued as Senior Partner, Buckminster Fuller Associates.
Continued as Consultant, Team 3 International.
Chairman, Fuller-Patterson Corporation and Buckminster Fuller Research and Development Park.
Author, Grunch of Giants, to be published winter 1982-3 by St. Martin’s Press.

1982

Continued as World Fellow in Residence, University City Science Center, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
University Professor Emeritus, Southern Illinois University, Edwardsville and Carbondale, Illinois.
University Professor Emeritus, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
Continued as Senior Partner, Fuller & Sadao PC.
Continued as Chairman of the Board, R. Buckminster Fuller, Sadao & Zung Architects Inc.
Continued as Senior Partner, Buckminster Fuller Associates.
Continued as Consultant, Team 3 International.
Continued as Chairman, Fuller Patterson Corporation and Buckminster Fuller Research and Development Park.
Designed and developed tensional Dymaxion Hanging Bookshelf.
Designed and developed deresonated Tensegrity dome.
Author, Inventions (working title) to be published 1983 by St. Martin’s Press.
Designed and developed steel strap model of spherical to planar triangular transformation.
Designed BigMap, basketball-court-sized Dymaxion projection displayed to U.S. Congress.

1983

Continued as World Fellow in Residence, University City Science Center, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
University Professor Emeritus, Southern Illinois University, Edwardsville and Carbondale, Illinois.
University Professor Emeritus, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
Continued as Senior Partner, Fuller & Sadao PC.
Continued as Chairman of the Board, R. Buckminster Fuller, Sadao & Zung Architects Inc.
Continued as Senior Partner, Buckminster Fuller Associates.
Continued as Consultant, Team 3 International.
Continued as Chairman, Fuller-Patterson Corporation and Buckminster Fuller Research and Development Park.
Bucky and Anne died within thirty-six hours of each other, one week before their sixty-sixth anniversary, Bucky on July 1st 1983, Anne on July 3rd 1983.