[Domesteading 00273] Remembering Magda Cordell McHale

[Patrick Salsbury]

This is sad. I've just learned that Dr. Magda Cordell McHale has passed
away. (She passed a week ago.) Dr. McHale was a teacher and friend of mine,
and along with Harold Cohen, was my mentor as I worked on my major in
Design Science at the State University of Buffalo, NY. She was an early
futurist, and influential in helping to develop the field of futurism, as
well as an artist, designer, and wonderful person.

She was an inspiration to me, and will be missed. 

I'm still a bit shook up by this news. :-(

<a
href="http://bfi.org/our_programs/who_is_buckminster_fuller/quotes_and_stories/remembering_magda_cordell_mchale">
<img border=0 width=200 height=253
src="http://bfi.org/images/content/frontpage_events/magda.jpg"></a>

From the page: 

"Tribute by Jim Dator, Futurist, University of Hawaii

Magda Cordell McHale died Thursday, February 21, in Buffalo, New York,
according to SUNY Buffalo, where she taught. She was 87.

Magda and her husband, John McHale, were among the earliest and most
important futurists. She was from Hungary and he from Scotland, and the two
were like oil and water--or fire (Magda) and ice (John). They were a true
couple in that one completed the other, so much so that when John died
suddenly with no prior warning at 56, Magda struggled to go on without him.

But she did, magnificently, and carried on the work that they had begun in
England (as founders of the kitsch and pop art movement called "The
Independent Group"--indeed, John and Magda were the originators of the term
"pop art"); brought to the US where they worked initially with Buckminster
Fuller; then to the University of Houston where they established a futures
center called the Center for Integrative Studies; and, after John's death,
at the School of Architecture and Planning of the State University of New
York at Buffalo.

Magda (flamboyant, gruff and always stylishly dressed) was a superb artist
while John (quiet and shy in his tweedy jacket and absurd bowtie) was a
gifted writer. Between the two of them they produced excellent
textual/visual presentations of trends, emerging issues, and new and
interconnected ideas. They were always tirelessly searching for something
"new", and excelled in seeing, early on, patterns that most of us did not
see until much later, and presenting them to us in very memorable ways.

Both of them helped establish the World Futures Studies Federation and the
World Academy of Art and Science. John was Secretary General of the latter
during the 1970s and Magda was active on the Board of the Academy until her
death.

The two of them were resident scholars at the East West Center
immediately following the Hawaii 2000 activities of 1970 and made a big
impact on Hawaii for the several years they were here. Hawaii also greatly
influenced them as well and they always recalled their days here with
enormous fondness.

During the time I was President of the World Futures Studies Federation,
Magda was the North American Vice President. She was a constant advisor and
friend, phoning me several times a week to tell me what to do, and tireless
in her insistence that everyone in the Federation should exhibit both the
highest scholarship--building on the work of prior futurists--as well as
displaying utmost creativity and novelty. Otherwise, they should shut up,
she would insist. She did not suffer fools gladly--I was her only
exception--and would invariably sit in the back of the room during
conferences muttering in her extremely deep and gruff voice about the
"shit" that the "idiot" up front was saying.

The absence of that voice and mind and spirit diminishes us.

<a href="http://www.buffalonews.com/obituaries/story/286135.html">Read
another obituary from The Buffalo News"</a>

-- 
Pat
	   ___________________Think For Yourself____________________
	 Patrick G. Salsbury - http://reality.sculptors.com/~salsbury/
     The Design Science Wiki is at http://reality.sculptors.com/cgi-bin/dsc
	   ---------------------------------------------------------
		       varium et mutabile semper femina
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