TRUZZI, Marcello 1935-2003

OBITUARY NOTICE—See index for CA sketch: Born September 6, 1935, in Copenhagen, Denmark; died of colon cancer February 2, 2003, in Ann Arbor, MI. Scientist, educator, and author. Truzzi made a name for himself as a researcher in parapsychology and the field of "amnomolistics"—a word he coined—that is the study of anomalous phenomena. He graduated from Florida State University with a B.A. in 1957, served in the U.S. Army for two years, and then received his master's from the University of Florida in 1962 and a Ph.D. from Cornell University in 1970. He embarked on his teaching career at the University of South Florida, where he was a sociology instructor for two years before going to the University of Michigan, where he was an assistant professor from 1968 to 1971. After teaching at New College in Sarasota, Florida, for the next three years, he moved back to Michigan and joined the faculty at Eastern Michigan University in 1974 as a professor of sociology. He chaired the department there from 1974 to 1986. Unlike many of his colleagues, Truzzi was open-minded about the paranormal and other unusual claims, such as the supposed sightings of the Abominable Snowman and extraterrestrials. He conducted research in everything from ESP and witchcraft to UFOs and psychic crime investigators. In 1976 he was a founder with Paul Kurtz of the Committee for the Scientific Investigation of Claims of the Paranormal and edited its journal, the Skeptical Inquirer. After concluding that his colleagues were more interested in debunking anomalous phenomena than in studying them objectively, he quit the group and founded the Center for Scientific Anomalies Research in 1981, as well as the Zetetic Scholar, which he edited from 1978 to 1987. Truzzi edited a number of books during his career, including the bestselling textbook Sociology and Everyday Life (1968), and was the author of Caldron Cookery: An Authentic Guide for Coven Connoisseurs (1969) and coauthor of The Blue Sense: Psychic Detectives and Crime (1991).

OBITUARIES AND OTHER SOURCES:

books

Encyclopedia of Occultism and Parapsychology, 5th edition, Gale (Detroit, MI), 2001.

periodicals

Los Angeles Times, February 11, 2003, p. B11.

New York Times, February 9, 2003, p. A30.