The first time I heard Stanton Friedman’s name was back in the 70s when I lived in Montreal, and my friend Howard told me about the famous Barney and Betty Hill alien abduction case. Barney and Betty Hill were an American couple who claimed extraterrestrials abducted them in rural New Hampshire in September 1961.
Known as the Hill Abduction, it was the first widely publicized report of alien abduction in the United States, and Friedman investigated it. The abduction grabbed my attention because it took place on a route through New Hampshire’s White Mountains that I knew well.
Howard loved talking about flying saucers and was one of Friedman’s biggest fans. I loved talking about them too because in 1967, at the summer camp I attended near Sandy Cove, Nova Scotia, not far from Digby, I saw one.
That night, a few other lads attending Camp Champlain and I snuck out of our bunkhouse and were in a large field near the ocean. We saw an object hanging in the sky blinking different coloured lights. It’s hard to recall how long we watched it, but I remember it made no sound. Transfixed, we watched it rise straight up, hover for a moment and then zoom off, zig-zagging across the sky. From that moment on, I have believed that anything is possible (with the possible exception of me getting my taxes done on time).
Anything is possible, including meeting and getting to know Stanton Friedman himself at Fredericton’s Boyce Farmers Market one Saturday morning in 1982 shortly after moving back to Fredericton from British Columbia. He was selling copies of his research papers, including one called “Flying Saucers Are Real,” which I bought. Stan and his wife Marilyn, who is from New Brunswick, had moved to Fredericton from California a year or two before.
Years later, in an interview I did with him for an article, Stan told me that after California’s Proposition 13 passed in 1978, property tax revenue to local governments diminished dramatically, substantially reducing university resources. For Stan, who was making a living on the university speaking circuit talking about flying saucers, reduced resources meant fewer speaking engagements. Knowing there would be plenty of opportunities to speak at the many universities and colleges on the East Coast, Stan and his family moved to Fredericton. California’s loss was New Brunswick’s gain.
Over the years, I would bump into Stan now and again around town. A few times, I dropped by his house with friends who wanted to meet him. Stan was always a gracious host.
About 20 years ago, when Eddie Kinley, the executive director of the Association of Professional Engineers and Geoscientists of New Brunswick (APEGNB), wanted a speaker for the association’s annual general meeting, I suggested Stan. Kinley, an engineer himself, agreed and extended an invitation, which Stan accepted.
Knowing that some in the audience would think that talking about flying saucers was ridiculous, Kinley made sure that Stan’s outstanding academic credentials and many professional accomplishments, including as a nuclear physicist with some of America’s most respected companies, were front and centre.
Stan’s talk was a big success. During the question-and-answer session afterwards, many of the engineers who were initially skeptical asked the most questions. A kind and thoughtful man with a fine sense of humour and an appreciation for irony, Stan got a big kick out of that.
Sadly, Stan Friedman died of a heart attack at Toronto’s Pearson Airport on May 13, 2019, on his way home to Fredericton from a speaking engagement in Columbus, Ohio. He was 84.
Fortunately, before this tragic event, Stan made arrangements to donate his papers to the Provincial Archives of New Brunswick. It speaks well of the staff at the provincial archives that Stan entrusted his collection to them. An outstanding researcher himself, Stan spent thousands of hours in archives throughout North America and beyond.
“It’s a treasure trove that reflects a brilliant, curious mind,” says archivist Joanna Aiton-Kerr, manager of services and private sector records at the provincial archives, the person now responsible for Stan’s lifetime of work. “This has been a real education for me, and I don’t know if I’ve ever enjoyed helping to process something more than this one,” she said in a recent CBC Radio interview.
Aiton-Kerr, who met Stan shortly before he died, says she’s come to appreciate and value his sense of humour. One piece she found particularly funny was a 1970s-looking poster advertising Sasquatch wrestling in Pittsburgh and a match between the challenger, Stanton – ‘The Brain’ – Friedman and Bigfoot, the Undefeated World Champion.
Knowing what I know now about Stan Friedman, had I been in that Pittsburgh arena for that long-ago night of Sasquatch wrestling, I would have put my money on Stan and his big brain.
I bet my old friend Howard would too.
When my mom was pregnant with me she lived in the basement apartment at Betty and Barney’s home in Portsmouth, New Hampshire, along with her twin and my Uncle. They were having trouble finding a place because they were both mixed race couples, no surprise that Betty and Barnes rented to them. I grew up with the stories of the event that happened while they lived there and had the opportunity to meet and speak at length on the subject with Stanton while in the Superstore one afternoon. At age 60 I saw my first unidentifiable object in the sky this year and like my friend Lane it has changed my perspective on the world greatly. Story to come soon, thanks for inspiring me.