The Last Days of William Bunge:

Abstract

The Last Days of William Bunge: Clark Akatiff (bio) When I first presented this account of the last years and death of the famous American communist geographer William Bunge, I asked an audience of students and their professors, "How many have heard of 'Wild' Bill Bunge?" A minority of students and all the professors raised their hands, but most, by far, had not. No surprise; who has heard of any geographer in these days? This is despite the growing importance of geography in science, in government, in business. All depend on Geographical Information Systems (GIS), and on digital maps. This formal revision of a paper given some years past is at this time being written under C-19 shutdown. The advance of the virus and the steps taken to suppress it give daily evidence of the relevance of geographical science. Yet as a pillar of learning, we stumble. The great American universities dropped geography as a Department of Learning. They kept maps and they kept geographers, often called something else, because you cannot do without geography. Geography grew in the state universities and abroad in Europe and Asia, but even there we see erosion. These days I see the term geosciences coming into use, and that is perhaps the future of the old girl. Time will tell, but let this memoir provide a brief but true insight into a man who led the field into its future state: Great Brilliance and/or Complete Obscurity. Legends and Realities You never know how well you are known or unknown. Certainly that is the case for me, more a rumor than a reality. The legendary status that some have attributed to me is all the more true of Bunge himself. As geographers we are both exceptions to the rule, on the margins, outlandish and without academic shelter, part of a larger people's movement, unknown, or forgotten. That's Bill, and even more so that's me, Clark Akatiff, his ally and friend since 1968 (Akatiff 2016). What brought Bill and me together? A love of geography, that old whore of the sciences, as well as the dreams for a world of peace, justice, and equality, [End Page 133] a world of socialism leading to perfect communism. Ours was a forty-year alliance, held at a great distance, but alive all the more so. The world of the mind takes place at a very high level. The word goes back and forth by the decades, not the moments. This bears explanation and repetition: this is a very slow-motion conversation we are having, already nearly a decade since Bill passed. And in my relationship to the man, there is also the true sense of the words mentor, guru, disciple, and aide. It speaks to the real relationship of the mind; it traces back to Socrates and Plato. I heard the man speak, and I bring his words as remembered and recorded. I love Wild Bill, though he drove me nearly to distraction with his endless rants and professorial advisories, as well as the details of his family history. One could not help but note his spoiled behavior. He was, after all, from a rich family. And he understood that. He saw it as a fault, but could not overcome it. I recall his behavior at his last AAG meeting, in Boston 2008. Driven from Montreal in a limousine, imperious, expecting people to come to him, using me as a messenger boy (which I was happy to do). He once told me, "Clark, people don't like me," then laughed about it. There was nothing not to like about this big galoot of a man. He had a good heart and a great mind. He could sit at a piano and play the blues. He was the loudest voice in the room. Yet he rubbed many people the wrong way. He had a reputation for violence. He would claim it was unearned, but it was a real reputation. There was an incident while he was at Wayne State in which it was asserted that he "roughed up a conservative student." Some said he threatened to throw a racist out the window, but the...