take from one who knows that dr. nemeth hit the nail on the head. after spending 1 week in canada with wild bill that is only a small part of the life and times of william wheeler bunge. any more would make the hair on the back of your neck stand up. i might be the black sheep of geographers but it does not bother me. sleep well bill.

i was given a letter given a letter by william bunge that was sent before his death. it also included the address where he was institutionlized. it is ashame that research by other geographers is cut short.

there are archives that contain great information. you ought tate advantage of them. sleep well bill.

dear kent

i am still waiting for your return phone call. i do not know what you were fishing for. however, if you would like bunge information i would be happy to give the private investigator phone number i used for my research. if you or any of your buddies have any doubt you can get in thouch with dr david j nemeth. he will not release any information, but will verify about i used a p.i. among others.

dear dr. nemeth

the c.i.a. doctors-by colin a. ross, m.d. this is a new book that deals with mk ultra and others.

it might be a good idea if other geographers read it. william bunge was the victum of these programs. to bad other geographers didn't look deeper into the medical programs.

trevor barnes should have researded the family tree. yes trevor mario bunge was right. yes luke the cds were right if the cia didn't destroy them.

Hello David K. Thanks for your recommendation of the book by Colin A. Ross, MD. You imply in your most recent reply to my question about MKUltra, the geographer Dr. William Bunge, and his alleged defenestration event, that the famous Canadian philosopher Dr. Mario Bunge is 1) a blood relation to William Bunge, and 2) that Mario Bunge "was right" about something he published specifically relating MKUltra to the condition of his distant cousin William Bunge in Canada. Can you please upload a document that might verify Mario's truth claim? One that cites Mario Bunge and perhaps convinces me that Mario "was right" in making this truth claim? Thanks!

David K. Someone attentive to this thread just telephoned, advising me to consult the following online source in response to my questions to you, sent earlier today. Please post up any additional confirmations in support of Dr. Mario Bunge's truth claim quoted below, if you are so inclined:

"The next episode of the dark side of the history of psychiatry was the MKUltra project of 'mind control' financed by the Central Intelligence Agency and carried out between 1953 and 1964 at the Allan Memorial Institute, a part of McGill University in Montreal, Canada, which happens to be the present author's academic home. The director of this project was the reputable physician Ewan Cameron (see McCoy, 2006), but he was assisted by some of the best psychologists of the time."

"The victims of those brutal treatments were ordinary mental patients who were not told that they were being given high doses of LSD and amphetamines, which made some of them seriously sick, and permanently disabled others. One of those unwitting guinea pigs was Professor William Bunge, an American mathematical geographer and a relative of the present writer, who consequently had to live out his life in the Quebec wilderness."



https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1002/pchj.171

Mario Bunge. 2017. "Reconceptualizing Mental Disorders." PsyCH Journal, Volume 6, Issue2 (June) 161-165

First published: 28 June 2017 https://doi.org/10.1002/pchj.171

the person who furnished the information asked that it be kept silent. i will say that he was in in contact with bunge before his passing. i do have the envelope from bunge last letter.

yes dr camron was a great doctor , but he knew to much.

why was he killed? did he know what was the cause of bunge's death? you left out allan memorial institute. camron was the leader of mk ultra.

I don't know whether the story of Bunge allegedly throwing a student out a window at, I believe Iowa, is true or not. I heard the story a good four decades ago, may even have been longer than that, when I was a grad student in the late sixties. I suspect that had he really done so he would have been arrested and perhaps given some jail time. He stayed at my apartment in McGill for one night in the late seventies and my sense was that he was fucking nuts and had I not been careful might well have assaulted me over a disagreement that he had. How credible are such stories? Probably not very. When I was at Cincinnati in the early 70s and had some heated exchanges with Bob McNee before he came out of the closet there was a story floating around that I had gotten into a fist fight with him on a back street. Pure bullshit. Same with a somewhat similar story about me at Illinois and a hard verbal confrontation with a couple of assholes on the faculty there.

Your truth claim suggests that a significant portion of William Bunge's "Wild Bill" nickname may be attributed to his involvement in the MKUltra program.

If found true, a re-interpretation of his work through the lens of psychosis is warranted, particularly research centered on consistent delusions of grandeur.

I encourage those with evidence to confirm or refute Bunge's involvement in the MKUltra program to step forward.

Refutation or confirmation of the MKUltra claim would add to Bunge's cult of personality in Geography and perhaps position him as a hero of Radical Geography and Extreme Geography. https://www.researchgate.net/publication/268446978_Extreme_Geography_SAGE

I looked for Bunge with a friend during the summer of 2013 in a nursing home just outside Montreal, the day after spending the night in a car on a dirt road near the Wilhelm Reich museum (which we visited) in Rangeley, Maine.

This nursing home was the last known place a cooperative professor from Wayne State received a letter from Bunge.

When we arrived to the nursing home, I asked to visit my 'Uncle Bill' but the receptionist said no man of my uncle's name was admitted.

Aware of Bunge's paranoia (perhaps the side effect of too much LSD during his MKUltra experiments), we figured he checked into the nursing home under an alias. Armed with only a room number from which Bunge's last letter to the Wayne State professor was addressed, my friend and I managed to enter the side entrance of the nursing home, thanks to the help of very friendly/negligent nurses on a smoke break.

We booked it for the third floor room that Bunge addressed his last letter from; unfortunately, only a man named Henri, who ironically had a similar build to Bunge, resided in the room. We scoured every door photo/name card for Bunge's face or name to no avail.

Unfortunately for us, the nursing home was much more secure from the inside-out than outside-in. After about an hour of searching for inconspicuous exits we hastily left the building through the front entrance, but not before I profusely apologized to the receptionist. I remember earnestly explaining to her that I just wanted to meet my long lost Uncle Bill. The mix of truth and fiction convinced her enough to not call la police and we were free to continue onto Toronto.

Best of Luck,

michael

Michael,

In answer to your research response, you might be surprised. I spoke to an Ivy League professor and during his teaching days he had know direct contact with Bunge. He was far from being a radical geographer and the farthest that Bunge would deal with is someone from Wayne State University. During my early research on Bunge I spoke to five or six professors from Wayne State and there was nothing positive from those interviews. Getting back to the professor I spoke to from the Ivy League was, he received phone calls and letters from Bunge. But out of the blue the phone calls came every Thursday and the letters came at various times. I have copies of the letters and envelopes that Bunge sent. This professor said that if he was going to use a fake name it would be German or Objibwa.

The return address on the envelopes I have were from Bill Bunge with the nursing home address in a little Hamlet just outside of Quebec. When I get a chance in the near future I will send details of the freedom of information act responses from the CIA, FBI and department of justice. For the most part the FBI and department of justice were more than willing to provide information. The CIA destroyed all of Bunge's files. I will elaborate on this. Best regards. David

Please check out this article "Congressman Lists 65 'Radicals' Despite Injunction: by; David E. Rosenbaum

New York Times, Thursday, October 15, 1970.

http://nyti.ms/1QWIkOK

For the geographers that are really interested I filed a second FOIA request with the FBI directed to LeAnn Ramsey who is the director of files for the FBI. This request was strictly aimed at MKUltra which was not mentioned in my first request. The first request was strictly about Bunge which turned up 500 pages of information, non of which was aimed at MKUltra. Mrs Ramsey informed me it would take two years to clear the 500 pages.

there will be more in the future.

The question that should be asked about Bunge is not was he clinically nuts or violent but what did he contribute? Was he a major force when at Washington in defining, in my terms, geography as the study of a third or fourth order variable--space? A major mistake and one taken up in a serious way by Berry and Getis and others who came out of Washington at the time Bunge was around, when I believe, Bunge saw geography as a "geometrical science"--all about space. Another question about Bunge is that of how important the Detroit Geographical Expedition proved to be? Was it anything more than an ephemeral short-lived idea or did it lead to other kinds of fieldwork that mattered? Finally, did Bunge write anything else beyond his dissertation that really mattered?

This is my first comment in response to reader comments since posting my provocative question "Did MKUltra transform storied American geographer William 'Wild Bill' Bunge into a defenestrator?" nearly three months ago. Thanks to David Kaplan, Michael Chohaney and Richard Symanski for contributing is substantive ways to this fruitful conversation. I encourage all those knowledgeable academics still viewing these exchanges from the sidelines to chime in and enrich the conversation with their own anecdotes, insights and opinions. I would like to hear from more anarchists, radical relativists, and extreme human geographers, who might choose to use this platform to share their innovative perspectives by responding to my original question, and to related questions raised by D.K, M.C. and R.S.

To elaborate on the previous FOIA answer I did not put a complete answer in my response. In the FOIA 2, it had to do with MKUltra, subject William Wheeler Bunge Jr. I also believe that the artichoke and bluebird experiments on human subjects might also have been done on Bunge.

I received an e-mail Friday night from LeeAnn Ramsey who is the director of FOIA research, she stated that she forwarded the information about MKUltra to the CIA and the Department of Justice since it hadn't been in the first FOIA request. She also mentioned that the other 64 speakers are in the system being looked at now. Will let you know what we find.

Bill once told me, flat out, that he never threw a student our of a window at Wayne State, or any other place. However, I do believe, knowing his volitile nature, that someone might have felt so threatened, but that is not the same. Like pulling a gun on a chump, but not shooting them. It seems that this could be settled, by requesting the discipinary paperwork associated with incident that contributed to his exit from Wayne State. Now that he is dead, it might be possible to access them.

This MKultra thing is untrue. The "evidence" is a paragraph in Mario Bunge's Memoirs. It was discovered by Luke Bergman, while researching the Memorial Obit he and Dick Morrill wrote. He asked me about it and my response to him was that Bill had a naive understanding of LSD and more to the point he had not lived in Canada during the period of MKUltra. Never, during our 40 year alliance, had he mentioned anything remotely like this, nor is it in the correspondence.

It is clear that Mario Bunge did not "like" Bill and utimately thought he was "Crazy". MKUltra was an explanation, without evidence. (Thank you David for trying to get evidence...one never knows for sure, but I think this is another incidental link in the myth of Wild Bill). To be sure he was seen as an "Enemy of the State" owing to his sometimes membership in the Communist Party as well as because of his organizing efforts. CounterIntelpro was more the agency that affected him, as well as many others, myself included. Fuck 'em. The truth will out.

https://antipodefoundation.org/2012/09/04/then-like-now-the-roots-of-radical-geography-a-personal-account/

I hope the above works as a link to my "Roots of Radical Geography". It is also available as published in the APCG Yearbook 2016, but I don't know how to access it there electronically.

Still working in the dump. For awhile.

Clark Akatiff

Palo Alto

Thanks Clark, David and Richard for your recent responses to my question "Did MKUltra transform storied American geographer William "Wild Bill" Bunge into a defenestrator?" Clark and Richard opine that the alleged event never occurred. They offer convincing and rational arguments, although in this post-rational, post-irony and post-impossible current era of "fake news," all stories -- no matter how incredible -- can be deemed plausible for discussion purposes. So here we are.

The renowned philosopher of science Mario Bunge has published in at least two quality academic modes (one is cited above) that MKUltra subjected Bill Bunge, geographer, to mind control experiments. These are the sort of experiments that have made the phrase "Manchurian candidate" part of American popular culture and inspired all sorts of conspiracy theories during and since the Cold War. It may be too much to hope that Mario Bunge will join this discussion to elaborate on his provocative truth claim, here disputed by Clark. Perhaps Luke Bergman has an opinion he would like to share here? Or Dick Morrill? Or anyone else?

Is the much-repeated story about Bill Bunge's defenestration of a college student plausible? Or, is this story (and according to Bill Bunge himself) merely "a canard"? (see Trevor Barnes, 2017 (footnote #6) for this quote, at DOI: 10.1177/0308518X17707524).

Thanks, Clark, for sharing the link to your retrospective on Bunge, and on the radical geography movement, from Antipode, and also for sharing the important items appended to the article. You photo of Bunge, taken at his last AAG conference, is excellent. It reveals how charismatic and powerful a presence he was, even toward the end.

The Myth and the Man. Once a person passes what is left? Richard's question was to the point: What was Bunge's real contribution? Well, I refer to Trevor Barnes excellent presentation at last year's Bunge Memorial, where he spoke of "spark of genius" and the way in which Bill's life involved two such sparks: 1. Theoretical Geography and 2. Human Geographical Expeditions.

I was a graduate student at UCLA when Theoretical Geography came out. I recall Joe Spencer circulating the book. I didn't think much of it. I was very much against quantitative obsessions, and only liked the idea of "Meta-Geography". Of course this was but one, of a complex of works that arose out of Garrison's Department at U of Washington, but somehow, it stood out, became the cynosure of critque. As the field rushed into mathematical anaysis, Bunge did not follow. Rather he moved to the second spark

Human Geographical Expeditions. Not only the Detroit Geographical Expedition & Institute, DGEI, though that was primal in order, but the entire thrust of politically oriented Geography. This arose out of the yeasty revolt of the 60's and 70's. His book "Fitzgerald" in an odd way capitalized the movement. His role in formation of the Union of Socialist Geographers, all of this was part of the second spark. Here again he was but one of a phalanx of geographers moving in that direction. In many cases these efforts were more successfully that his own ventures, which often foundered on the shoals of his problematic personality.

I would add a third Spark represented by his Nuclear War Atlas which mapped the consequences of such an event. It is the nightmare we have all dreamed during our lives in the Nuclear Age. He was in sync with the common understanding. He did it on his own, was Geographer without Station for for the best majority of his professional life. Published and distributed In exile. Tried to sell them door to door. The Darwinian imperative. The Children as godhead. Split with the Communists over this. (Not really).

But more to the point of Bunge's lasting legacy I would say as a geographer, he was there when it happened and was one of those, along with myself, who made things happen

It is his being in Wisconsin in the time of General Hartshorne,

It is his being in Seattle at the time of Garrison,

It is his being in Detroit during the time of the uprising,

It is his being in Selma with King,

It is his being in the Communist Party,

It is his being on HUAC's list of the 81 "Dangerous Speakers" of the 60's,

of being there at the Founding of the Union of Socialist Geographers,

of being there in Cuba,

of being a geographer through it all.

This is a small circle, and we may all be as crazy as some think Bill was. But I think not. We are on to something and we are also there. Radical Geography.

The time of resistance.

Clark

for your information-please refer to the pages that are scanned inj. I am sure that it would be hard to think that a world figure as Mario bunge(would pull the wool over peoples eyes). he might not have thought much of the bad boy in geography but he makes a good case. you can go to the family tree and see the split in the route the two families took. you can see this going back to the 1700s to the 1800s.

see yal later!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

sleep tight bill

Thank you David K. for providing this significant documentation of truth claims made by the eminent philosopher and physicist Mario Bunge. They specifically address Bill Bunge's rumored violent, behavior as related to his unwilling? participation in atrocious CIA-sponsored, clandestine MKUltra mind-control experiments. Please provide a complete citation for Mario Bunge's published autobiography from which you extracted these pages. I think this latest information you have provided here brings us a bit closer to an agreed-upon answer to my question, "

Did MKUltra transform storied American geographer William' Wild Bill' Bunge into a defenestrator?" Clark Akatiff has written with confidence (see above) that

"This MKultra thing is untrue," and then elaborated his own arguments contra Mario Bunge's published truth claims. I have confidence we can eventually sort out this controversy via this forum.

thanks jim

I am not finished yet!!!!!! you aware of my new finds which I will make public when the time is right. I will say this the one government document I have which you saw lists bunge on two pages(8&14).

have your self a great day,

david

p.s. Marcia had to give 4 Xanax!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Here is the source of the book pages uploaded above to this site by David Kaplan:

• Bunge, Mario. 2016. Between Two Worlds: Memoirs of a Philosopher-Scientist. Cham: Springer International Publishing. http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-29251-9.

Clark Akatiff reports above that "Bill had a naive understanding of LSD and more to the point he had not lived in Canada during the period of MKUltra." The Wikipedia article on MK Ultra reports that "The [MK Ultra] operation was officially sanctioned in 1953, was reduced in scope in 1964, further curtailed in 1967, and officially halted in 1973." This puts Bill Bunge in Canada during the time that MK Ultra was still operational." Clark?

YES JIM THIS IS THE BOOK "BETWEEN TWO WORLDS MEMOIRS OF A PHILOSOPHER-SCIENTIST" PAGES 4,5,6. ACCORDIND TO GOVERNMENT DOCUMENTS MKULTRA WAS ACTIVE UNTIL 1975 UNDER 3OR4 DIFFERNT NAMES. SOME SAY IT COULD BE STILL ALIVE. I JUST GOT 86 PAGES FROM THE CIA WITH FILE NUMBERS LISTED. I FILED ANOTHER FOIA FOR THE PAPERS THEY CONTAINED. THE FAMILY TREE IS OUT THERE.

David K: Does the Mario Bunge family tree document "out there" that includes both Mario Bunge and William W. Bunge also include Ernesto "Che" Guevara, as Mario reports in his autobiography, on page 5? If so, do you know if Bill Bunge's writings include any indication that Bill might have known that he was a blood relative of Che? These two anti-Capitalist Revolutionaries appear to have a lot of ideology in common, no? Perhaps "Senator McCarthy's hounds" (MK Ultra) that Mario mentions on page 6 in his autobiography were on Bill's trail since his Army days?

I may return to this later, but for now, reviewing new input, I remain convinced that Bill Bunge DID NOT throw a rightwing student out of the window at WSU. Nor do I believe he was a subject to MKultra brain washing. The government fucked with him, for sure, but not in that way.

jim

I am going to look back on the family tree. anything is possible.

well clark I am going back through the files that the cia shipped to me yesterday. the name ross came up. I am glad you are so sure. as far as what went on at wsu the police reports might say something else. I filed a foia with them when I first stated my research into bunge(11 years ago they are still in my files)

I take it that Wayne St has never responded. Let me know what the documents say if you have them. I did a little ancestry search on Bill, but didn't get very far..

Like the rest of us, Bill was an admirer of Che Gueverra, but he never said a mumbling word about being a relative of his. Had he knowledge of something like that he would have said something. He went on and on about his Ojibwa roots.

"Did MKUltra transform storied American geographer William 'Wild Bill' Bunge into a defenestrator?" Myriad voices of the Internet these days serve to obfuscate rather than edify on this question. Here is a brief example found online that continues to help spread the now legendary "Bunge-as-a-defenestrator" rumor:

http://enacademic.com/dhttp://enacademic.com/dic.nsf/enwiki/4469502ic.nsf/enwiki/4469502

"William Bunge was an Assistant Professor at Wayne State University, Michigan, 1962-1969. A geographer and professor from Vancouver reports Bunge was fired from Wayne State for swearing in class, dropping a student from a second story window, and sending his students on a field trip into the inner city. Class notes from Dr. Robert Rundstrom October 9th, 2006 claim Bunge was a taxi driver while on sabbatical to get to know the streets and the people of Detroit."

This version of the rumor claims it was "a second story window." So the rumor not only spreads daily, but becomes elaborated in richer detail along the way. And Clark Akatiff's version of the rumor (see above) specifies that alleged student victim was "right wing." This sounds logical and just punishment -- assuming "Wild Bill" was indeed the Revolutionary Communist he claimed to be, and actually perpetrated the alleged crime.

The link takes me to a Russian Language site. Is that the source of the information in quotes? I cannot read Russian. The only Robert Rundstrom I find is a prof at U of Oklahoma who received his BA from Berkeley in 1975. It seems unlikely he would have Class notes contemporaneous with Bill's days in Detroit. To my knowledge Bill did not drive cab until moving to Canada.

Thanks for your additional input, Clark. This "Russian-language site" is the source of the information in quotes. The site's contents can also be read in English (and in a few other languages). You can click open that option at the top of the site's home page.

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Update, findings and implications: In November of 2017 a graduate student from Oklahoma State inspired this thread by writing me to ask, "I have been tasked with ascertaining the validity of a certain 'geographer's urban legend" and I was told through some investigation that you might be the person to ask. I am trying to figure out the real story of Dr. Bill Bunge, or more specifically, did he throw an unruly student from a window?



William Bunge wrote in "Perspective on Theoretical Geography" (AAG Annals, March, 1979, p. 172) that there is "a constant attempt to discredit my work by discussion of my personality, which, contrary to my detractors, is innately cheerful and outgoing as evidenced by my popularity with most of my fares driving taxi cab. At best, discussion of personality arises in a context of ethics and at worst in a buzzing, poisonous gossip. For instance, a right-wing student upset about class warfare threw me through a small window in class and this turned around in conversation into the canard that I had thrown the student through a large window. Blame the victim!"

Bill Bunge (1979: 172) therefore asserted in an academic journal that he did not throw an unruly student from a window.

However, Mario Bunge (2016) has recently reported that Bill was not of sound mind and body at the time he made this assertion. This is because his health and sanity were permanently impaired during CIA-funded MK Ultra's mind-control experiments conducted on Bill when he was under treatment at the Allan Memorial Institute of Mental Health at McGill University.

And so this is where we stand after several months of discussion in response to my own question "Did MKUltra transform storied American geographer William 'Wild Bill' Bunge into a defenestrator?"

The question remains a can of worms and a minefield.

The graduate student from Oklahoma State should be even more curious -- albeit unsatisfied -- with our collaborative findings and tentative conclusions. I hope she continues her researches on "Wild Bill" and gets back to me from time to time with her new discoveries.

I will officially now close this thread (but will respond to any further discussion as time permits). Many Thanks to the active contributors: David Kaplan, Clark Akatiff, R. Korski. Michael L. Chohaney and Dibakar Pal. Thanks also to Mario Bunge, Trevor Barnes, Luke Bergmann, Richard Morrill, Andy Merrifield, Nik Heynen and many others whose publications related to this topic and thread have informed the active participants prior to and during this challenging discussion.

Attention readers: This discussion site will be reactivated and updated with an important announcement within a few hours. Dr. Nemeth

what great news!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! i could use some brain stimulation.

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Did MKUltra Turn Storied American Geographer William "Wild Bill" Bunge into a Defenestrator?

Kimberly Panozzo* David B. Kaplan** Dr. Michael Chohaney*** Dr. David J. Nemeth****

Abstract

A geography graduate student's provocative question directed to Dr. Nemeth in the Fall of 2017 addressed a persistent rumor about a disturbing incident involving William W. Bunge, a notorious and enigmatic key thinker in space and place:

"I have been tasked with ascertaining the validity of a certain 'geographer's urban legend' and I was told through some investigation that you might be the person to ask. I am trying to figure out the real story of Dr. Bill Bunge, or more specifically, did he throw an unruly student from a window?"

Her question inspired a concerted ongoing research response by our project team, presently manifesting as this poster display. The display title elaborates on the defenestration rumor in the form of a hypothetical question that highlighting some of our team's unexpected and remarkable discoveries. Mario Bunge, public intellectual, philosopher of science and psychologist provides the historical link between 1) his blood relation "Wild Bill" Bunge and 2) the American CIA's MKUltra experiments in Canada.

Our investigation aims to tease out some truth(s) in the rumor. It has benefited from our archival researches, FYA inquiries, in field and on line interviews, and some forensic science/storytelling. Most prominent on the display are our timelines for Bill Bunge and MKUltra, deliberately juxtaposed for effect and in the hopes of expanding our investigations into the leading question.

* SISS PhD student, University of Toledo, primary author.

**Independent Scholar, Toledo, Ohio, Bunge Project Director, collaborating author.

*** NGO-affiliated GIS Conflict Analyst, The Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan, collaborating author

**** Professor of Geography and Planning, University of Toledo, collaborating author

This poster display will be presented the morning of October 19th on the Ohio Northern University campus during the annual ELDAAG (East Lake American Association of Geographers) regional meeting. We invite everyone interested in discussing with us this ongoing project to attend.

ELDAAG poster project presentation update: "Did MKUltra Transform Storied American Geographer William "Wild Bill" Bunge into a Defenestrator?" Three of our four project team members will be on hand to discuss our poster display in the McIntosh Center on the campus of Ohio Northern University, Friday, October 19th, from 10:10-10:50 (and throughout the day, if needed). We will respond to all questions and comments related to the controversial academic career of Dr. Bunge (d.2013), including alleged, authoritative and disputed claims that he was:

1) a defenestrator (or was defenestrated by) a student while living in the Fitzgerald neighborhood of Detroit;

2) an unwilling casualty of the CIA's nefarious MKUltra mind-control experiments;

3) affiliated with SDS, the Black Panthers, and the Communist Party;

4) shared a common ancestry with Ernesto "Che" Guevara;

5) toward the end of his life enthusiastically recruiting graduate students toward organizing a final capstone "Geographical Expedition" in search of the lost burial site in Canada of the great Shawnee War Chief, Tecumseh;

6) and much, much more ... .

Ohio Northern University if located in the scenic village of Ada, Ohio, a few miles east of Lima. Free parking is available on the ONU campus, at the McIntosh Center and the Freed Center. Hope to see you at ONU!

I'd love to be there. See if you can video the event. Or post notes and photos. Here is a detail regarding Bill and the CPUSA and SDS. In the HUAC list Bill is listed as SDS, but was in the Communist Party at the time. I think the reason for this misidentification was that Bill was involved in the early foundation of the SDS, especially the Port Huron statement. I believe he spoke at the event.

wow clark. that gave me a TRUE APPRECIATION of WILD BILL BUNGE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

his life and times. there are a few government documents that mention bunge. the only problem is finding them.

East Lakes AAG Meeting Poster 2018

A pic of David B. Kaplan and Kimberly Panozzo from our ELDAAG team poster presentation event:

great photo!!!!!!!! it was of great interest not only to kim and i but, dr. nemeth and mike. this was a labor of love. it was also used to create a new dialog on one of the great geographers and bad boy of geography. the theme was to generate the idea that research can over turn rocks that contain answers to questions that not only geographers have but, other discipline also. i know this is a provocative area to create interaction old and young. i want to make it clear that i respect william wheeler bunge, jr. i might condone all his actions but, i admire his academics accomplishments.

i have reached the crossroad in my life that my research has ended and the sun has set.

I hope that this poster will be shown at the AAG Washington, next April. The legacy of Bill Bunge continues to impress. Right in the middle of lots of stuff.

Good job. But, I still don't believe the MKultra stuff nor the kinship to Che. Don't remember anything about Tecumseh, but I should search my papers to see. He was much involved with Native America in those last years .

i know bill was a knight in shining armor. contact jeff gordon at bowling green university. he was asked to drop everything and join bill's merry band of grave robbers. i guess if ihad a 40 year relationship with someone i would be a doubting thomas also.

Another photo from ELDAAGeographers 2018. The two eccentric David Kaplans from individual orbits finally collide ...

what follows shows softer side of william bunge. yes bunge is capable of writing fiction that touches the heart. it is in incomprehensible how a man who has published books, articles, letters to a select few individuals that are so controversial that people would scratch their heads to read this work of fiction. what follows are quotes from an unpublished manuscript.

so they gave the boy the keys to the city. the keys to the city were twisted

see everything was made out balloons. the trees were made of balloons,

brown on the trunck and then green on the top...

bunge

he was into huge balloons...

bunge

this work was given to his grandson on christmas 1980.

i forgot to add that i do have a copy of balloon land.

I did not know dat Bill wrote a fiction book, or even a childrens book. As Bill forged a intellectual pillar of modern geography (albeit an interestingly shaped one), that is probably more relevant than mere curiousity as it likely says something about Bill himself as well (like you say). Did anybody every write/reflect about it, considered publishing it? Sounds like a great theme for the AAG's new Geohumanities journal. Would love to learn more.

This is news to me. I have not come across fiction from Bill, but that may simply reflect on the nature of our comradeship. It was all Geography and Political. He was prolix, but not particularly poetic. David, you need to share more of this. Is there something beyond this inscription to his grandson?

clark,

as far as know i have the only complete manuscript with the exception of bunge's grandson.

Bill Bunge's timeline of landmark achievements and events on our ELDAAG poster display refers to his renown (notoriety ?) in the history of geography as a revolutionary academic "Space Cadet" and mathematical geographer. The poster can now be updated to include mention of his surprising authorship of an unpublished children's book manuscript in 1980 titled "Balloon Land." In this context I recall a controversial illustration (Fig. 3.5) in Peter Gould's classic The Geographer at Work (1985) that represents a savage "Quantifactus" abducting a startled, stark naked "Geographia" from the wailing loser "Qualifactus" (portrayed as a rustic hick), and carrying her across the river "Fluvia Calculus" toward a theoretical landscape filled with geospatial models. Gleeful Quantifactus in the illustration reminds me of rambunctious "Wild Bill" Bunge early in his academic career. I have not yet read the entire manuscript copy of Bunge's children's book, but judging from David B. Kaplan's brief quotations from it, "Balloon Land" seems to be a sort of Bill Bungian topological fantasyland. Does anyone know the name of the anonymous creator of this controversial illustration (Fig. 3.5 in Gould)? I long assumed it was Dr. Forrest "Woody" Pitts.

if i knew how to scan; i have plenty to add to the discussion that might put light on the the life and times of william bunge. as i reflect on balloon land it seems like bunge is grasping for geographers to recognize the softer side of a rough and tumble teddy bear. it is true break from his other publications. gould's illustrations

also add the truth about his demeanor.

I come to this thread a bit tardy. Still learning how to navigate RG. Scanning is fairly easy David. Most computer printers have the capacity. One can also photograph. But to Jim: I would not make too much of the Balloon analogy. As a many times over grandfather I know about making up stories for grand-kids. But if it exists as a children's book, then publication as Michael suggests would be good.

David J. Nemeth Woody Pitts denied until the end that he had made it, but would not tell who did. The illustration was first published in one of the three issues of the "rogue journal" "geography" that was clandestinely distributed at AAG's in the early 1960s by the Quantifiers to mock the old guard. Gould definately played a central role in the anonymous collective, Pitts, Marble, perhaps Berry too. And Leslie Curry also had a few loughs with it. But who exactly was involved is nearly lost to history by now. If anyone here has more information or background on the rogue journal, I'd be very interested.

michiel

you might want to address the teachings of peter gould. also there is a matter of globe head and also consult gould's writings. they are very thought provoking.

clark

wow how what a revelation!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

michiel

woody pitts and I exchanged quite a few emails. some where about the cartoons. most came back to gould. gould was on my thesis panel. due to his medical condition he passed away much to soon.

Thank You Michiel, Clark and David K. I have been digging around and am now convinced more than ever that Dr. Forrest R. "Woody" Pitts is the anonymous cartoonist who is rumored to have created "The Abduction of Geographia by Quantifactus (published in Gould, 1985, p. 34), but originally -- as Michiel asserts -- in an issue an some "rogue" journal named "Geography" that was circulated among a pioneer cult of mostly AAG mathematical/theoretical academic geographers, calling themselves "The Quantifiers." Please stay tuned for more detailed evidence and validation, perhaps forthcoming soon.

I recall seeing this drawing early on, but never knew Woody Pitts nor did I know who did it. It did, however bring to mind a "Mappa Mundi" created by Jack Eichenbaum in his 1972 U of Michigan Dissertation. He called it "Where you're at in Geography" and I attach a copy here.

the correspondence between woody pitts lasted almost eight years. it was mainly about the infamous cartoons that created a fire storm of who done it. the letter that I posted I hope will bring someone out from under a rock. the journal that woody wrote about is another thought provoking subject.

Woody's letter refers to "Figure 1 The Structure of the Quantitative Revolutions" found in the government report "from the Iowa group." David B. Kaplan, has kindly loaned me his copy of this obscure report from his vast, private and personal Wild Bill Bunge archives. I was fascinated to discover that Figure 1 in this report is a jocular (Cold War satire?) network map, or chart, of the entire pantheon of heroes of academic Geography's Quantitative Revolution, as dreamed up by an anonymous author (Note that Bunge appears on the chart as the lone Maoist). As Woody implies in his letter to David, Peter Gould and his anonymous friends first published this network chart in the anonymous spoof journal, Geography, about 1962. The chart was retitled Figure 1 and republished in the government report dated 1971, on page 39. The Iowa group that prepared the report comprised of Gerald Rushton, Frank E. Horton*, James B. Lindberg, Michael L. McNulty, David R. Reynolds, Neil E. Salisbury and Peter Taylor. The report was titled "Quantitative Geography: Achievements and Prospects Final Report" and prepared by the Institute of Urban and Regional Research on a grant for the U.S. Army Engineer Topographic Laboratories Research Institute, Department of the Army. I attach Figure 1 from the report here hoping to expand our continuing discussion.

* Dr. Frank Horton was serving as President of the University of Toledo when I arrived as a TT hire in 1989. Bill Bunge had apparently applied unsuccessfully for a position here when he was in the process of being fired from Wayne State.

Switching gears for a minute. I now verified that the controversial and "anonymous" illustration that appears in Peter Gould's The Geographer at Work(RKP 1985) titled "the Abduction of Geographia by Quantifactus" (figure 3.5, on page 34) was indeed originally published as authored as "Geo-political Cartoon: The Rape Geographia" on page 15 in Vol, 1(march 1964), of the mimeographed underground journal Geography. The artist is therein identified as T. Untermeer. I know this because I have finally acquired my own copy of this rogue journal(apparently edited by quantitative geographer Forrest R. "woody Pitts), and that it includes the salacious cartoon. my investigations inside the Bungean labyrinth cuntinue--in EARNEST. Anonymous Author