6. DR. J. ALLEN HYNEK

In 1981 Dr. J. Allen Hynek, one of the most prominent UFO researchers, came to Seattle to be on KOMO's Town Meeting television show. We invited Allen and his wife Mimi to stay at our home. They accepted so we planned a party in their honor.

The Seattle Center was sponsoring a "Sci-Fi" fair. The UFOCCI had a booth there where we met many contactees. We also met the Hyneks for the first time there, as well as Jacque Vallee. Quite a few of our members were on the show that day, as well as Bob and Gloria Gribble and ourselves.

After the fair was over we had a pot luck dinner for Allen and Mimi Hynek. All of the contactees were invited. They shared their stories with Dr. Hynek. It was a treat to be able to just sit down and talk with him at leisure.

The next day we drove Allen and Mimi to Canada. They were going to visit Dr. Max Edwards, a linguist, who is also a UFO researcher, in Victoria, B.C.

Dr. Edwards came to stay with us several times and spoke at our meeting.

One day Bob Gribble called and said would you like to meet Dr. Leo Sprinkle? I said of course! He said be ready early in the morning. We were up at 6:00 a.m. to go to Sea Tac Airport. We met Leo at the Hilton Inn and drove him to the airport to catch his plane. Most of the talking was done on the run. I am afraid I dominated most of the conversation asking Leo questions.

I didn't know that this visit would portend a closer relationship to come when we moved to Wyoming. (See Chapter 2.)
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NOTE: Most persons do not know that Allen Hynek's mother was a Spiritualist Medium. As such he grew up believing in spirits, and phenomena. UFOs were already something he believed in. He got a bum rap by the Air Force making him say that a perfectly good sighting was "swamp gas." Soon after that he quit his association with them.

And Dr. Sprinkle became a member of our Board of Directors. He became a good friend when we lived in Wyoming. He still doesn't have a computer! Hard to believe. He is still practicing since he retired from the University. He has an office in Laramie and people still ask him for advice.