Hynek, J(oseph) Allen (1910-1986)

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Hynek, J(oseph) Allen (1910-1986)

Prominent astrophysicist and authority on UFOs. Hynek was born on May 1, 1910, in Chicago, Illinois. He attended the University of Chicago, from which he received both his B.S. (1931) and Ph.D. degrees (1935). In 1942 he married Miriam Curtis.

Following graduation he took a position on the faculty at Ohio State University, where he remained until 1956. He worked for four years with the Smithsonian Astrophysics Observatory (1956-60) and then became the director of the Dearborn Observatory at Northwestern University, Evanston, Illinois, where he served until his retirement in 1980. In 1964 he also assumed duties as director of Northwestern University's Lindheimer Astronomical Research Center.

Hynek approached the UFO question as a skeptic but eventually became convinced that some of the reports could not be explained away by conventional means. During his early days at Northwestern, several graduate students, including Jacques Vallee, encouraged his interest in the question. In 1965 he was quoted as suggesting that UFOs might be extraterrestrial craft and calling for more scientific attention. When in 1966 Hynek was asked to speak on the subject of a flurry of UFO sightings in Michigan, he dismissed them as "swamp gas." The humor provoked by that incident led to his speaking out on the need for UFO studies at a congressional hearing several weeks later.

Several years later a civilian review committee was formed. The Condon Report, however, was trapped in controversy and internal bickering and Hynek was among a number of scholars who rejected its final negative report. In 1972, in The UFO Experience, Hynek charged the air force with laxity and incompetence in its research on UFOs, and the following year he led in the founding of the Center for UFO Studies. From that time forward he took the lead in championing the cause of UFO research and nurturing scientists and other researchers around the country. The center's work peaked during the late 1970s. In 1977 Hynek served as a technical consultant on the Steven Spielberg movie Close Encounters of the Third Kind, which drew its name from a term coined by Hynek.

Hynek went on to write several additional books prior to his move to Arizona in 1985. Believing he had found a major source of money for UFO research, in 1984 he resigned from the center in Evanston and early in 1985 established the International Center for UFO Research in Phoenix. The financial support he had hoped for, however, proved to be dedicated more to metaphysical than scientific study, and Hynek dropped his association. Before he could recover from his mistake, he was diagnosed as having a brain tumor. The tumor took his life on April 27, 1986.

He was survived by his wife Mimi, who had been a diligent and often unheralded editor and worker behind the scenes. The Center for UFO Studies was renamed the J. Allen Hynek Center for UFO Studies.

Hynek's own career awaits final evaluation when the UFO question is finally laid to rest. In 1973 he was interviewed by Ian Ridpath for the May 17 issue of the journal New Scientist. Hynek modestly reflected, "I've never launched any new theories, I've never made any outstanding discoveries." When Ridpath stated that Hynek would be remembered "not as an astronomer but as the man who made UFOs respectable," Hynek replied, "… I wouldn't mind it. It's always nice to add one stone to the total structure of science. If I can succeed in making the study of UFOs scientifically respectable and do something constructive in it, then I would think that would be a real contribution."