Date/place of birth:
14 September 1917
Denver, Colorado
Date/place of death:
June 2007
Sarasota, Florida
Relationship to the
college:
Student 1936-41
1941, 1942 Summer Work Camps
Apprentice teacher, weaving, fall 1940
Graduation in art and textile design, 1941
Profession:
Architect
Graphic Designer
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DONALD LOUIS RICHTER
Date of birth: ______________, 1927
STUDENT
1949 Summer Institute
Donald Richter grew up in Chicago, where he attended ____________ High
School, graduating in ________. Having worked on Lake Michigan as a
merchant marine and an oarsman summers, Don tried to enlist in the navy
while still in high school. Rejected because of his poor vision, he was
determined not to be drafted into the army. Instead, he traveled to the
West Coast and signed onto a ship as a merchant marine. The ship took him
to the Philippines where he ______________________. At the end of the war,
he remained in the merchant marines, traveling to China and Shanghai and
later to South America. Back in Chicago, his older brother Robert Richter,
who had studied at the Illinois Institute of Technology (IIT) and the
Institute of Design (ID), suggested to Don that he enroll at ID.
Donald Richter enrolled at ID in ________ and completed his B.A. in
Product Design in the spring of 1949. It was there that he first heard
about Black Mountain College from Buckminster Fuller. Fuller had taught at
the 1948 summer session and was invited to Black Mountain in 1949 for a
second summer. Fuller asked a group of students, including Don, to join
him at Black Mountain to continue the work of the previous winter.
Don recalled that at that time “I was not looking for further degrees, but
further experience.” His GI Bill funds had run out, and Black Mountain
offered him a scholarship. During the summer the Fuller students
re-erected a “necklace dome” which they had built the previous winter at
ID. They worked on a plastic skin for the dome [had you done this in
Chicago?] and on a mold for a rigid fibreglass form that would be a cover.
Don brought with him to the college, a model of the “necklace dome”
covering a dweling which he, his brother Bob, and Harold Young had
constructed the previous year in Chicago. The concept for the model was to
demonstrate a practical use for the dome, the creation of a climate
controlled environment enveloping a dwelling.
At the end of the 1949 summer, Richter returned to Chicago where he
continued to explore the dome structure. He remained in communication with
Fuller, who was teaching at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology
(MIT), and sent him photographs of his models. Fuller asked Don to join
him at MIT as an assistant. When Fuller left MIT, Don rented a room near
Fuller on Long Island so that he could continue their conversation. Fuller
suggested that Don might become an aircraft engineer. Despite his lack of
training, he recalled, “After Black Mountain College, [I] felt free to do
anything, try anything...,” and he applied for a job – for which he was
rejected. Fuller gave him names of two books on aircraft engineering. Back
in Chicago, he responded to an ad for a job as a structural engineer at
Convair in Fort Worth, Texas, and sent photographs of the dome models on
which he had been working. He was hired as a “Senior Structural Engineer”
and immediately assigned projects far more interesting than those given to
the “qualified” Junior Engineers who were given mostly paperwork. In
_______ Don was transferred to San Diego where he met his wife Irene.
Don remained in contact with Fuller, and when Fuller signed a contract for
a large dome for Ford in _________, he asked Richter to analyze the
structure for the building permit. When that dome was completed, on
Fuller’s suggestion, Don applied for a job at Kaiser Aluminum. In Oakland
he and students constructed a small dome at the Oakland Park Zoo. When
Henry Kaiser saw it, he asked Richter to design a large dome for ________
convention center in Hawaii. In subsequent years with Kaiser, Richter
designed both large domes and smaller domes, primarily for college
campuses. His brother Robert Richter also worked as a design engineer for
Kaiser and constructed the __________ dome in Moscow which Don Richter
designed.
In ________ Don left Kaiser to work for R.C. Mahoun West (sp?), a
subcontractor for Kaiser Aluminum. When Mahoun liquidated, Don and
coworkers, Walter Mitchell and Roger Rogers, formed Torrance Engineering
Manufacturing Corporation (TEMCOR), which designed and constructed domes
and related structures internationally.
Since his retirement from TEMCOR, Richter has devoted his time to painting
and writing. His first novel – Passage of Topal: The Story was published
on demand in 2003 in cooperation with Trafford Publishing. He also has
designed a windmill, and created a plan for an “autonomous village” – a
condominium that could be built in developing companies. He continues to
work as a consultant for TEMCOR.
Don Richter and his wife Irene have two daughters and four granddaughters.
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