A Drawing and Remembrance from David Rulon

David has this drawing framed and in his home. If you look closely, you can see that the vault shading is composed of the word “YES” repeated many times. I asked him to share it along with some of his memories.

Some of my remembrances of Gabor:

The last time I saw Gabor was about five years ago. I was back in Philadelphia for either a reunion or taking my daughter to see schools. Gabor suggested that I meet him in Houston Hall on the second floor. I met him there and we were sitting down to talk when two Penn Policemen came up to us and said that Gabor was not supposed to be there and they took him away.  I am not sure if my daughter was with me or not, but Gabor in a recent voicemail said she was. My daughter does not remember that. At the time, I was very confused by the whole incident and after a few calls was able to track down where they had taken him. He had been taken to the Penn Police station at the other side of campus. By the time I got over there they had released him. I later spoke to him and he explained to me that a woman student had thought he was eying her laptop computer and she thought he was going to steal it. So they banned Gabor from being on campus for some period of time. He would often call me prior to this event to talk about lots of different things. I always enjoyed listening to him and was always amazed that even though we had not talked for weeks or even months he started up like he had talked to me the day before.

When Gabor  called about a week before he died, he left a voice mail. In the voicemail he apologized for not getting back to me sooner (five years??) but said he was enormously embarrassed about the incident. I did try to reach him a few times but he never called back so I assume that was the reason.

Recollections from when I lived in Philadelphia:

Meeting him at a restaurant was always a bit awkward. He would order a hot water so the waitress or waiter was never sure what or if they should charge him.

Gabor taught (I think) two studios with Yves LePere from Belgium. I took both studios. Yves had to pay for Gabor because the school would not pay him. As you probably remember, Gabor was not well liked by the administration. Probably for good reason. He was always trying to stir up revolution against them when he came into the studio in the middle of the night.

As I mentioned to you Gabor helped me a lot to start to work through some very painful times after I split up with my first wife.  He had recommended a psychiatrist who I think was also Gabor’s. I only saw the man a few times because I was determined to leave Philadelphia and move to either Santa Fe NM or to San Francisco. I remember the psychiatrist was very patrician and quite smart. He did recommend that I see one of his students when I arrived in SF. I did see that man for several years and he was a bit looser with his sessions and his “ethics”> I ended up designing an addition for he and his wife. I know that is something that psychiatrists are not supposed to do.

A story that David Polk (or maybe Yves LePere) once told me: In Kahn’s office several people were working on a competition and each person was assigned a drawing. Gabor was assigned a drawing but would not show it to anyone until the very end. When it came time to package up the drawings and send them off, Gabor unveiled his drawing. It was on a white sheet of paper and the drawing was done in white pencil or ink so it was almost impossible to see what it was unless you were right up close to it. There was no time to do anything about the drawing so they just included it in the package and sent it off.

Amy Polk has a story about Gabor leaving a feather on the doorstep whenever he wanted to talk with David but David was not there.

Recollections from CA:

He once came and stayed with my wife and I when we were house sitting for her “ex-step mothering-laws" house in Marin. A magnificently beautiful place at the top of a mountain that looked straight at Mount Tamalpais. Gabor stayed for I think about 2 weeks. By the end of the two weeks my wife hated him. He would wonder around in a robe like Mahatma Ghandi or some spiritual type person or monk.  We talked a lot which I totally enjoyed but my wife could not relate. I have always thought that Gabor had some kind of an antenna and would show up when things were “good”.

Often when he called me at night, my son would answer the phone and sometimes listen in on our conversations. He would asked me later what was that man taking about? It sounded “crazy”.  I tried to explain but he was fairly young at the time.

Gabor was always encouraging to me and made me feel special. I am sure he did that with many people.

Death is so final. You wish you could have said a few more things or appreciated what you heard and learned from those that are gone. I would say that Gabor was that type person but multiplied 100 or 1000. He is completely unique. I hope he is able to come back as he said to you, maybe sooner than 25 years. I think I will be gone by then.

I will probably think of other things as I see the recollections of others. I do have one or two stories that I do not think he would want me to share. I am going to watch the DNC convention now. Did I see that Gabor might have liked Trump?? That does not sound right.

Kind regards,

David

John David Rulon, Architect

www.RulonWorks.com