Sources close to Stanton T. Friedman have confirmed that the ufologist and nuclear physicist passed away unexpectedly last evening at the Toronto Pearson Airport while returning home from a speaking engagement in Ohio.

Friedman worked as a nuclear physicist on classified projects—including nuclear aircraft, fission and fusion rockets, and compact nuclear power plants for use in outer space—for over a decade with companies like General Electric, General Motors, Westinghouse, and McDonnell Douglas. However, it was Friedman’s work involving UFOs for which he was perhaps best known; his interview with Major Jesse Marcel in 1978 is largely considered responsible for the resurrection of the 1947 Roswell UFO crash investigation. Friedman was a firm supporter of the extraterrestrial hypothesis to explain UFO sightings, and used science to help show how it might be possible for spacecraft to traverse the universe’s unimaginable expanses.

Friedman has given lectures on ufology to more than 600 colleges and 100 professional groups in every state in the union, as well as all 10 Canadian provinces, and 19 countries outside of the U.S. He's been featured on countless radio and television programs, written over 80 UFO-related research papers, and published several books on the UFO phenomenon. Despite “officially” retiring in 2018, Friedman continued to book speaking engagements, and was scheduled to speak at the Mutual UFO Network’s 50th anniversary symposium in July.

Born in New Jersey, Friedman had dual citizenship with Canada, and was a resident of Fredericton, New Brunswick. He left behind his wife of 44 years, Marilyn, with whom he had a daughter, and three children from a previous marriage.

He was 84.

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