EMail This Page - Print

Christina Smith

Known for his mesmerizing long lectures and world-famous architecture, Buckminster Fuller is a legend at SIUC.

Morris Library's Special Collections recently purchased a group of films, videos, audiotapes and 31 publications, which are either made by Fuller or are about him. The collection includes articles, books and poems.

The library purchased the collection from Harold Cohen, one of Fuller's former colleagues, who used to be the chairman of SIUC's design department.

The collection is unique because it came from one of Fuller's good friends, said David Koch, director of special collections.

"The collection will be of great importance to students and others, who are doing research not only on Fuller, but on the design program down here and what was so important about it during that time and what continues to give it a reputation," Koch said.

Richard Buckminster Fuller, known as "Bucky," taught at SIUC from 1959 to 1971 as a research professor in the design department. In 1971, Fuller moved his work from Carbondale to Edwardsville, former SIUC professor Bill Perk said.

After Fuller left to work in Philadelphia in 1972 and Cohen left to work in D.C. later in the 1970s, they remained close friends, as did their wives, Anne Fuller and Mary Cohen.

"This collection that we acquired recently were the things that Harold Cohen and his wife, Mary, had gathered through the years through their friendship with Bucky and Anne Fuller," Koch said.

Fuller was best known for inventing the geodesic dome in 1949, which is a self-supporting structure that maximizes the amount of indoor space in relation to outside surface area. In 1959, Cohen invited Fuller to come to SIUC. He had known Fuller in Chicago. Fuller came to SIUC because its design department had well-known faculty and student innovations in the 1950s, Koch said.

Cohen was the driving force of the design department, Koch said. When Fuller came to the University, the design department became more famous around the country, Koch said. In 1968, the Board of Trustees appointed Fuller as a University professor. He was nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize in 1969, but did not receive the award.

"It was a time at SIU that we were very proud of SIU, that it had somebody like that here that was such a warm, genuine person and so well-known and liked throughout the world," associate professor of architecture Bob Swenson said.

Fuller had an active mind.

" Fuller was quiet, very introspective and almost shy," Swenson said. "If you looked at him, you knew he was thinking, pulling ideas together, and networking with ideas and people all over the world."

Fuller focused on the use of materials, energy, recycling and using common sense about world resources, Swenson said.

"Fuller was a world traveler, and I could not understand how he could be involved in so many places and things," Swenson said.

Fuller had a professional architecture practice and worked on projects in his office on West College Street. He was interested in sustaining the earth and used the phrase, "We are all traveling together on this spaceship called earth." Fuller believed that if we can't get along, we are not going to survive, Swenson said.

Fuller didn't teach classes, but he occasionally gave lectures and helped students with class projects, Swenson said.

"When Fuller would talk, he would talk for three or four hours at a time, but most people would still be there and would generally be fascinated with how he would tie something up at the end," Swenson said.

The faculty that were here were very close to Fuller and spent time at his home and he spent time at their homes, Swenson said.

Bucky Fuller received the Medal of Freedom from President Ronald Reagan in 1983. He died July 1, 1983 and his wife died July 3, 1983.

"I can't think of anyone more important to be represented in Morris Library," said Dona Bachman, Director of University Museum.

Reporter Christina Smith can be reached at christina_smith@dailyegyptian.edu