A major contributor to scientific engineering and environmental studies, Richard Buckminster (Bucky) Fuller (1895–1983) was born on July 12 in Milton, Massachusetts, and died July 1 in Los Angeles, California. His epitaph, "TRIMTAB," sums up the worldview of the man who coined the term "spaceship earth." Trim tab is an aviator's term that refers to adjusting the wing's surface in order to change direction slightly. "TRIMTAB" refers to Fuller's belief that no one could actually steer the entire spaceship earth, but one could adjust the course slightly and stabilize it in times of turbulence.

Fuller entered Harvard in 1914, only to be expelled twice for "irresponsibility and lack of interest." From this inauspicious educational beginning, Fuller went on to receive forty-four honorary degrees, lecture at more than five hundred universities around the world, author twenty-four books as well as hundreds of articles, travel around the world more than...