In the late 1960s, when I was a student at Southern Illinois
University, I had the opportunity to seek out a gifted genius in architectural design
who was on staff there. R. Buckminster Fuller was a professor lecturing on
staff there at the time, and for some reason it never occurred to me until
after I had left, that I should have met the man.
Fuller's genius is as undeniable as my own stupidity in this
neglect. I can imagine no greater embarrassment for me unless Frank Lloyd
Wright had been there, as well. And I certainly have no excuse, as in 1967, I
went on a family vacation that included the world's fair in Montreal , Expo 67. There, the United States
exhibit was housed in a giant biosphere designed by Fuller, a geodesic dome 200
feet tall with a 250-foot diameter. His most famous architectural contribution,
geodesic domes became a sort of trademark. One of my own characteristics, a
lack of foresight, became my trademark for a while.
Fuller and I both returned to SIU to go our separate ways,
him to gain a full professorship and me to flounder in scholastic indecision
for another couple years before the campus was shut down due to the Kent State
