Rube Goldberg

For the namesake contraption, see Rube Goldberg machine.

Rube Goldberg
Goldberg in 1929
Born
Reuben Garrett Lucius Goldberg

(1883-07-04)July 4, 1883
San Francisco, California, U.S.
DiedDecember 7, 1970(1970-12-07) (aged 87)
New York City, U.S.
Resting placeMount Pleasant Cemetery in Hawthorne, New York
Alma materUC Berkeley
Occupation(s)Engineer, sculptor, news reporter, cartoonist
Known forRube Goldberg machines
Spouse
Irma Seeman
​
(m. 1916)​
Children2, including George W. George
Websiterubegoldberg.org
PLAY Something for Nothing (1940); runtime 00:08:45

Reuben Garrett Lucius Goldberg (July 4, 1883 – December 7, 1970), better known as Rube Goldberg (/ˈruːb/), was an American cartoonist, sculptor, author, engineer, and inventor.

Goldberg is best known for his popular cartoons depicting complicated gadgets performing simple tasks in indirect, convoluted ways. The cartoons led to the expression "Rube Goldberg machines" to describe similar gadgets and processes. Goldberg received many honors in his lifetime, including a Pulitzer Prize for political cartooning in 1948, the National Cartoonists Society's Gold T-Square Award in 1955,[1] and the Banshees' Silver Lady Award in 1959.[1][2] He was a founding member and first president of the National Cartoonists Society,[3] which hosts the annual Reuben Award, honoring the top cartoonist of the year and named after Goldberg, who won the award in 1967.[4] He is the inspiration for international competitions known as Rube Goldberg Machine Contests, which challenge participants to create a complicated machine to perform a simple task.

  1. ^ a b "Rube Goldberg Awards Achieved, The Group, History and Significance of the awards". www.rube-goldberg.com. Retrieved August 6, 2020.
  2. ^ Goldberg, Reuben. "Members / In Memoriam / Rube Goldberg". reuben.org. National Cartoonists Society. Archived from the original (JPEG) on June 4, 2011. Retrieved August 5, 2009.
  3. ^ "The History of the NCS" Archived December 23, 2011, at the Wayback Machine. reuben.org. National Cartoonists Society.
  4. ^ "NCS AWARDS The Reuben Award". National Cartoonists Society. Retrieved January 21, 2021.