Jul 17 2009

Richard Hall Passes

Hall in 2007 (from his home page)

Richard Hall, one of the leading ufologists of the last century has lost his longtime battle with cancer and passed away this morning at age 78.

Miles Lewis of the Anomaly Radio Network sent this message from noted UFO writer Jerry Clark:

I have just received word that veteran ufologist Richard Hall, who was both a friend and hero to me, died this morning of the cancer he had been fighting.
Ufology has lost a giant.

Richard Hall joined the National Investigations Committee on Aerial Phenomena (NICAP) in the 1950s and worked diligently for official recognition of the UFO subject, and also served as chairman of the Fund For UFO Research from 1993-1997, an organization that sponsors UFO studies such as Stanton Friedman’s MJ-12 research and the history of project Bluebook.

Hall represented the “old guard” of UFO studies, those who came into the field in the 1950s and settled in the extraterrestrial hypothesis as the default explanation for UFO origins, and tended to reject the ideas of those such as the late John Keel, who argued for an explanation that landed closer to home. But Hall always fought for official recognition of the subject as worthy of serious consideration by academics and scientists, and in that spirit, he remains one of the greats in the field whose shoulders we all stand on, and will continue to do so.

Here’s a clip featuring Hall (at 40 seconds in) commenting on the 1967 Malmstrom case from Paul Kimball’s 2007 film Best Evidence: The Top 10 UFO Cases: