26 A Fuller Family
2 Some readers will be interested in Bucky’s immediate family. Fuller was raised in a New England family. His father, a businessman, died unexpectedly when Bucky was still a child. This was a big blow to Bucky and the family. There were four children: Leslie, Bucky, Wolcott, and Rosie. Bucky was always an attentive, curious child with good table manners and kind words for everyone. I recall that even after his painful hip transplant, and while still mending, Bucky would jump up out of his chair whenever a lady entered the room. In my forty years with Bucky, I never heard him even once utter a cuss word. On one occasion, after we left a meeting where obscene words were being used for emphasis, Bucky leaned over and whispered to me, ‘‘I do not approve of using barnyard language, and I have no right to correct them; but only the ignorant and fools use gutter words.’’ Bucky was always a gendeman.
3 After being thrown out of Harvard for the second time, Bucky Fuller met Anne Hewlett in New York. Anne was the eldest daughter of a family of ten. Her father was James Monroe Hewlett, a prominent architect; he was vice president of the American Institute of Architects and director of the American Academy in Rome. It was Anne’s father who introduced Bucky to architecture, the arts, and a new way of thinking that would influence his entire life.
4 In 1927, at age thirty-two, Bucky made a pact with himself ‘‘to do my own thinking, and see what the individual, starting without any money or credit—in fact considerable discredit, but with a whole lot of experience—to see what the individual, with a wife and a newborn child, could produce on behalf of his fellow man.’’ He believed that ‘‘by doing more with less, we could take care of everybody and there need not be suffering around the world.’’ Bucky’s experiment as ‘‘Guinea Pig B’’ presented a challenge to his family. Fuller was convinced that ‘‘money is absolutely irrelevant’’ and if he carried on this experiment, his family would understand, and somehow ‘‘society would take care of their needs if he was operating properly for the benefit of all mankind.’’
5 Lady Anne, as many of us would address her, was creative, courageous, and able to adjust to the family affairs. Always supportive of her husband, Lady Anne noted that her life with this idiosyncratic man was not always easy, but she would have it no other way. With fortitude and always with grace, she managed beautifully. Her and Bucky’s marriage lasted just eleven days shy of sixty-six years. Anne passed away thirty-six hours after Bucky.
6 Allegra, Bucky’s daughter, followed her own interests and is a noted authority in dance. She is a graduate of Bennington College, and she holds an M.A. in dance from UCLA. Allegra was Professor of Dance and Dance Ethnology at UCLA, where she chaired both the Department of Dance and the pioneering World Arts and Culture Program. The recipient of numerous awards as well as a Fulbright research fellowship, she has many publications and films to her credit. Allegra was cofounder of the Buckminster Fuller Institute and is currently the chairwoman of its board. Bucky Fuller had asked Allegra and her son, Jaime, to serve as co-executors of his estate, a role they continue to fulfill.
7 Robert Snyder is Fuller’s son-in-law. A filmmaker, Bob received an Academy Award for The Titan: Story of Michelangelo and a nomination for The Hidden World. Other prize-winning films include Michelangelo, Self-Portrait, several films on Fuller, and films on Henry' Miller, Anais Nin, Pablo Casals, and Willem de Kooning. Bob edited the Bucky Fuller book Autobiographical Monologue Scenario and others on Miller and Nin. Bob and Allegra have two children, Alexandra and Jaime.
8 Jaime Snyder, a graduate in composition from the UCLA School of Music, is a producer and director of educational media. He was cofounder of the Buckminster Fuller Institute, is an active member of its board, and for many years was its executive director, instituting a highly successful series of educational programs on Fuller’s work. With Masters and Masterworks Production, and under his father’s wing, Jaime produced and directed two award-winning films on Bucky Fuller, and he now serves as the company’s CEO. Jaime and his wife, Cheryl, a teacher of meditation, reside with Cheryl’s daughter, Mira, on the West Coast.
9 Alexandra Snyder May was named for Bucky and Anne’s first daughter, Alexandra Willets, who died as a child. Alexandra was the associate director of the Isamu Noguchi Museum and Gardens and the initiator of its educational department. Alexandra and her husband, Sam May, a stock analyst in wireless communications, live on the West Coast. Alexandra and Sam have two children, Olivia and Rowan. Alexandra serves as a board member of World Game.
10 The R. Buckminster Fuller public memorial service was held at Fuller’s geodesic dome at the American Society of Metals headquarters in Cleveland, Ohio. The governor of Ohio, Richard F. Celeste, former Peace Corps director and currently the United States Ambassador to India, hosted the ceremonies in 1983. Alexandra followed Governor Celeste’s comments and read this poem by grandfather Bucky as a tribute to Anne Hewlett Fuller.
1113 I’m not ‘‘yours,’’ you’re ‘‘not’’ mine.
14 My years of life are seventy-nine.
15 Mysteries deepen. I opine ‘‘curvaceous, nymphacious, sylphaceous you’’ I’m nigh inefficacious. What may we do?
16 I can’t eat you and have you too.
17 Let’s enjoy laughter! And wisdom too.
18 You’re eternally lovely …The truly you.
19 You can’t ‘‘see’’ me, I can’t ‘‘see’’ you.
2021 But we may know one another and sometimes do …
22 Then learn that we both love only all that’s true Wherefore we both love the truly you I’ll love you forever