Tuesday, March 13, 2018

Stan Friedman Retires


Stan Friedman is retiring.

Stan is the person who most shaped the course of modern ufology over the past fifty years, for both good and ill. While I didn't always agree with him (or even often agree with him), Stan remains one of my favourite people, and I wish him a long and happy ride off into the sunset. He's earned it.

The Daily Gleaner, the local newspaper in Stan's hometown of Fredericton, New Brunswick, reported the news on the weekend.

The article is behind a paywall, but here is the text:

N.B. UFO EXPERT HANGING UP HIS TELESCOPE

Longtime UFO researcher Stanton Friedman of Fredericton is retiring.

"I'm turning 84 in July," Friedman said in an interview. "I'll look at the Internet, but enough is enough."

Friedman said he gave his first lecture on unidentified flying objects in 1967.

"That's a long time."

The author and former nuclear physicist began lecturing about UFOs while doing engineering consulting work, and his family moved to Fredericton in 1980 because his wife, Marilyn, was born in New Brunswick, he said.

He's travelled the world speaking about his belief in the existence of alien life, his views widely publicized at home and abroad through lectures, writings and his monthly column in the MUFON (The Mutual UFO Network) journal.

"One of my last events will be the Roswell International UFO Museum Festival in July in Roswell, New Mexico," he said.

Many believe a UFO crashed in the area in mid-1947, and that the United States military has covered it up ever since.

"I'm the original civilian investigator of the Roswell incident. I've been invited. I accepted."

Friedman said he will be giving several lectures at the event, which last year attracted 9,000 visitors for the weekend festival.

Retirement doesn't mean he won't be thinking about UFOs, he said.

Friedman said he has never doubted the existence of life beyond Earth, and the evidence of alien life visiting our planet has never been stronger.

"I came at it as someone who worked on far-out stuff. We now know that there are planets all over the place. In our own galaxy, they are in the billions."

The odds are very good that we're not alone in the universe, he maintains.