Archive

A Message from Jaime Snyder, grandson of Buckminster Fuller, also on behalf of his sister Alexander May and mother Allegra Fuller Snyder

Dear Chong Keat,

On behalf of my family, I am writing to let you know how delighted we are that you will be launching the new website: buckyconfluence.org on the occasion of Bucky’s 125th birthday

I think fondly of my two trips to Singapore and Bali in 1974 and 1977. The first was when I was traveling with Bucky at age 19 and we stopped there en route to Asia for other meetings with architects in Bangkok, Hong Kong, Mumbai, and Delhi: culminating in a meeting with Prime Minster Indira Gandhi. And then in 1977 I had the great privilege of participating in the second Campuan World Meeting (and Bucky’s birthday), and was in Bali for two weeks! While I have not been back since then, Allegra and Alexandra have both made trips there in recent years.

The connections with architects around the world was such an important element of Bucky’s commitment: and this evolution into the Buckyworld Confluence @ Bellevue is an important initiative to carry this synergy forward, as our planet faces the gravest of challenges.

We wish your team the greatest success in this new beginning!

With warmest regards,

Jaime

A Message from Thomas T.K. Zung

Richard Buckminster Fuller (fondly “Bucky”), in the famous TIME article, is referred as “Earth’s friendly genius”. For many, Fuller’s influence is still to be fuller realized. With iconic men of science, visionaries like Fuller and Leonardo da Vinci are studied for their ideas to fulfill humanity, and as Bucky himself said “to support and cooperate in the shortest time possible without disadvantage to others, and without ecological harm to Spaceship Earth for all mankind.”

To help fulfill Fuller’s ‘Critical Path’, one of Bucky colleagues in Southeast Asia, Lim Chong Keat founded with him the Campuan World Conferences, a gathering of luminaries involved with `synergetics’, the geometry of thinking. Bucky looked forward to these gatherings held in Bali and Malaysia, and until his death, Campuan was his dymaxion event. The Bucky inscription of Feb. 14, 1983, poised a question available to everyone: “Are humans a worthwhile to Universe invention?”

My name is Thomas T K Zung, once a student of Bucky at Virginia Tech in 1952, the architectural class mesmerized by this polymath, a friendly who made beautiful geodesic domes from toothpicks, marshmallows and rubber bands. A man who advised a 19-year-old due to be drafted for the Korean War, to study chemistry instead of wasting time bar- hopping when on army off duty.

Years later, with the architectural connectivity of Buckminster Fuller, Sadao & Zung Architects, and Shirley Sharkey, Bucky’s Executive Secretary, we have known many “Fullerites”. In addition to his incredible staff and his best friend, Isamu Noguchi, several are prominent as pathfinders, Datuk Seri Lim Chong Keat is one. He joins colleagues like Lord Norman Foster (they both graduated in Architecture from the University of Manchester), Sir Harry Kroto (co-Nobel laureate for C60, the buckminsterfullerene) – and Carl Solway, art connoisseur; together making up a brilliant Buckminster Fuller tetrahedron.

Thank you Chong Keat for your valuable contribution, ‘The Campuan Meetings and Bucky in Southeast Asia’ published in my book “Buckminster Fuller Anthology” (St. Martin’s Press edition in 2001; revised edition, SIU Press, 2014.).

On the occasion of Bucky’s 125th birthday, although regretfully the Covid 19 prevents in-person presence, we join in spirit for the buckyconfluence.org website launch with our Penang friends. Happy 125th Birthday, Bucky!

With admiration, respectfully yours, Thomas T K Zung, FAIA, Buckminster Fuller, Sadao & Zung Architects.

A Message from Shirley Sharkey, Bucky’s last Secretary

On Bucky’s 125^th Birthday, July 12, 2020

I had the privilege of being Buckminster Fuller’s Executive Secretary for the last 15 years of his life.  One of the many joys of that position was the opportunity to get to know quite well many of his family, friends, and associates. 

Prominent in my memory is his relationship with Lim Chong Keat.  Their association was only from 1971, for they did not meet until Bucky was 76 years old, and Lim then 41.

Even though their homes were half the world away from each other, they managed to share an incredible amount of time together. These meetings were facilitated by Chong Keat’s ability to host Bucky repeatedly at various locations in Southeast Asia, as well as his ability to join him (and often me) at so many other locations on our beautiful Spaceship Earth.  I know Bucky looked forward to the Campuan Conferences in Bali and Penang, which were attended by thinking luminaries, invited from around the world.

I am grateful for Chong Keat’s incredible support of Bucky’s work. No adequate words convey how thankful I am to have had the pleasure of sharing in their 12-year friendship. After Bucky’s passing, Chong Keat’s continued hosting of the Campuan Conferences often annually on Bucky’s birthday is an affirmation of that steadfast friendship.

This new Buckyworld Confluence website is just one more example of Chong Keat’s continued support of Bucky’s work. 

Please join me in a metaphorical glass to toast the launch of the website and to its continued success.              

Shirley M. Sharkey (nee Swansen), New Jersey, USA.

A Message from Nyoman Chatra & Made Sekar, who both as young boys knew Bucky in 1971 and helped to build the Bale Bunder at Penestanan.

Bahasa Indonesia version:

“Salam hari jadi Bucky
Sangat senang, saya sudah ketemu dengan Tuan Lim Chong Keat dengan Tuan Buckminster Fuller di Bali. Di tahun 1976, saat itu dia membuat bangunan yang diberi nama “ Bale Bunder Windhu Anne Bali Ubud Campuan” yang bertempat di Campuhan, Banjar Penestanan, Ubud. Saya sama I Made Sekar sangat senang sebab bangunan itu belum pernah ada dan dilihat, saya sama Made Sekar juga ikut serta dalam pembangunan itu.
Demikian saya bisa ucapkan tentang “ Bale Bunder”.

Dari Nyoman Chatra dan Made Sekar, Penestanan Kaja, Ubud, Bali.”

A Message from Joo Hock. Singapore

Dear Datuk Seri Lim Chong Keat, 

Our hearty congratulations on the launch of the website buckyconfluence.org. We are gratefully delighted that you are having this website and especially look forward to discussions, sharing thoughts, ideas and philosophy of Buckminster Fuller vis a vis the many current world issues, with the friends of the Buckyworld/Campuan platform. 

Thank you 

Joo Hock

Bucky Group Singapore

A Message from Jona S M Pang, Singapore.

Dear Datuk Seri Lim Chong Keat,

On the  occasion of the launch of buckyconfluence.org

In this unprecedented time of  COVID-19 pandemic,

May the very best of life force for good be

With the hearts and minds behind this environment-modifying artifact in disrupting thoughts and concerns, in the philosophies of Richard Buckminster Fuller,

of his generalized principles, his prognostication and analysis on cosmic evolution ever thinking of the words from Bucky:

“Humanity is moving ever deeper into crisis – a crisis without precedent”

“Evolution does seem intent upon making humans a success“In local support of the integrity of eternally regenerative Universe”

Best Wishes from Jona S M Pang, Singapore, 7 July 2020

A Message from Khoo Sui Hoe, Arkansas, USA
(the Malaysian artist who knew Bucky in Penang)

Sui Hoe sends his felicitations in the form of a painting for the occasion: “Bucky by Loengard, 2020” (based on a photo by John Borg Loengard, the famous photographer of “Life”, who has died in 2020)

A Message from Prawat Laucharoen, Thai Print-maker, New York.

Dear Chong Keat,

Thank you asking me to recall the event at my loft on April 15 1979, when you visited with friends and had also invited Alvin Toffler and Buckminster Fuller to meet.. Late that afternoon, after Toffler arrived with you and your musician friends, Max, the elevator-man, stopped on the sixth floor and an old gentleman in a brown jacket stepped out; it was.Buckminister Fuller! We had been mentioning Alvin Toffler’s book “Future Shock” and also “New Wave”, which became the conversation topic around the dining table, leading to discussing “Synergetics: Explorations in the Geometry of Thinking” and the book “Synergetics Folio” newly published by Bucky and yourself which you brought together with some T-shirts with “Four Quanta Phases” printed on them.

The evening was ignited with energy from other musician friends Lee Kum Sing, Loh Siew Tuan and Margaret Leng Tan; my good friend Janice was also present..I was amazed when Kum-Sing  went to my upright piano and began pounding out Brahms’s first Piano Concerto. As the sound made me flip out, I asked him “How can you play this beautiful opening with 10 keys missing on my piano?”

Bucky was 84 then, and it was not easy for him to hear, even though he had hearing aids. However he looked great, but had to be cautious with his salt-free diet. 

I remembered that it was quite a memorable but hectic evening, with so much joy that I forgot to grab a camera for photos. My memories of 41 years ago still remain alive with Bucky’s autograph in the copy of “Synergetics Folio” given to me, signed on April 15 1979. 

With fond memories,

Prawat Laucharoen, July 10, 2020, New York.