
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.