Gurule Correspondence 1960-2000
1.Peter Pearce 1974– Associate Dean of Design at Cal Arts. Ben asked him to read his paper. He apparently did a live demonstraction of the models for him and Purdue design professor, Victor Papanek (Papanek died in 1998) .
2.Robert Root Bernstein 1997– professor of Physiology at Michigan State. Writer on issues of science, creativity and art. He said Ben’s models show are art and math are one.
3. Albert Wilson of Topanga, CA 1974-asked to read Ben’s Woven Ancillary Shells paper. Ben expressed in his letter to him about how his system demonstrates Hydrogen close packed bonding and how Hydrogen converts to Helium. This letter represents his early musings about his alternate view of nature of the atom. He mentions his meeting with Fuller and upcoming presentation at Cal Tech.
4. Jean Pedersen, 1974(deceased 2016) Math professor at University of Santa Clara, explorer of plaited polyhedra. She wrote a Trigonometry textbook and published articles the Mathematical Gazette and Fibonacci Quarterly. Ben wrote to her about her “collapsoid” structures (new kind of polyhedra that fold up flat) and other polyhedra. She felt his polyhedra were unique and expressed interest in meeting with him.
5. Issac Asimov-1974(deceased 1992) Gurule sent him photos of his models to which Asimov responded: “They are fascinating and fill me with awe…” He suggested he send his material to Martin Gardner at Scientific American for further exposure.
6.Robert Parteger 1974– British math professor at Blundell’s School who wrote a paper for the Mathematical Gazette in 1959 called “Plaited Polyhedra” . He only explored what Gurule later called Q3, Q4 and Q6 structures. He later read Gurule’s initial 80 page paper entitled “Woven Armillary Shells”
7.Martin Gardner 1974– (deceased 2010) mathematician and science writer at Scientific American. Read Ben’s book and thought the topology and geometry of the system would be of great interest to math teachers. He was the first to inform Gurule about Gorham and Parteger who preceeded him in exploring woven polyhedra.
8.Linus Pauling 1968 and 1974- (deceased 1994) Ben wrote him,( enclosing photos of his models) requesting he read his 80 pg paper. Pauling answered he hadn’t the time to read it but was quite interested in how the models were constructed.
9.Verner Hoggart Jr 1974?– Math Dept. San Jose State, author of 1969 book “Fibonacci and Lucas Numbers” and editor of Fibonacci Quarterly. He sent Gurule’s patent to Jean Pedersen.
10. Andy McCammon 1974–Harvard Chemistry Dept. then now a highly regarded professor of Chemistry at UCSD. Gurule met with him in 1974? and sent him his 80 page paper. jmccammon@ucsd.edu 858-534-2905
11. Hallock Hoffman 1968-head of Center for the Study of Democratic Institutions. Ben wrote him suggesting applying his models to democratic systems and integrated structures. He later confessed this was an erroneous idea.
12. Hallmark Cards 1968-Ben listed himself on his resume as a creative consultant for Hallmark. He went to Kansas City accompanied by designer, Nils Diffrient to demonstrate his “geodesic” system to Hallmark.
13. Charles Eames 1967-Gurule wrote him in 1967 but no record of a response.
14. Nils Diffrient 1968-(deceased 2013) Famous industrial designer. Invited to Kansas City to along with Ben to meet with Hallmark. Ben wrote him regarding polyhedral puzzles and stated that all subatomic particles are “the same thing”.
15. Henry Dreyfuss 1969-1970-(deceased 1972) was quite impressed with Ben’s system and set up the 1970 meeting at Cal Tech where Richard Feynman was in attendance. Ben wrote Dreyfuss that he felt he’d unlocked the true “architecture of matter”.
16.William Holser 1974-Professor of Geology at University of Oregon. Called Ben’s system “a work of high imagination if not genius…perceptive, incisive, inspiring”. Suggested that he publish in math journals Gave him names of people to approach in chemistry, crystallography and math). He said the system raises questions about symmetry groups Ben points out the correlation of the number of 2 way crossings in this system, 2,6,12,20,30,42 to the number of electrons in the electron shells in the Standard Model.
17.Buckminster Fuller 1970-1974-Ben met with Fuller in 1970. Fuller was so impressed with his work that he asked him to write a chapter in one of his upcoming books. That never happened as Ben didn’t finish writing the manuscript until 1974 by which time Fuller had moved on to other things.