Laurance Rockefeller died on July 11, 2004 at the age of 93,
after a brief illness. Mr. Rockefeller was of exceptional
importance to UFO research. Between 1993 and 1995, he
supported Dr. John Mack's Center for Psychology and Social
Change in Cambridge, Massachusetts. In 1997, he funded a
discovery initiative spearheaded by long-time friend Marie
Galbraith, designed to inform world leaders of the validity
of the UFO issue and to increase pressure for disclosure of
government files.
Mrs. Galbraith arranged for the three most influential
civilian UFO groups in America to unite under the temporary
banner of the UFO Research Coalition: CUFOS (Center for UFO
Studies), FUFOR (Fund for UFO Research) and MUFON (Mutual
UFO Network). Drawing on these organizations' data
resources, a 169-page special report, "Unidentified Flying
Objects Briefing Document: The Best Available Evidence," was
compiled. The report was sent by Mr. Rockefeller and Mrs.
Galbraith to virtually every world leader, but there was
little response. It was later published by the Fund for UFO
Research and reprinted in Whitley Strieber's Dell Books
"Hidden Agendas"
series.
Whitley Strieber comments on Mr. Rockefeller's death:
"Laurance Rockefeller was a champion of disclosure of UFO
secrets who had the courage to put his money into this
cause. He contributed intelligently and effectively. The UFO
Briefing Document led to the production of the French
COMETA
Report, arguably one of the most persuasive documents ever
published regarding the UFO phenomenon.
"I attended a small conference funded by Mr. Rockefeller in
1997 at the Medway Plantation in South Carolina, owned by
Mrs. Sidney Legendre, a Rockefeller relative. At this
conference, he told me of his private certainty, gained from
his many contacts within the US government, that the UFO
issue was quite real and a very heavily guarded secret.
"He spoke of a time he had spent with President and Mrs.
Clinton at his JY Ranch in the Grand Tetons in 1995, where
he had outlined for them the contents of a briefing that had
been developed out of Project Starlight, the 1993
Rockefeller-funded program that evolved into today?s
Disclosure Project. He said that the Clintons had not
commented on the information until the next morning, when,
before the President appeared, Mrs. Clinton requested to Mr.
Rockefeller that he not bring the subject up again.
"He told me that he was quite certain that the abductions,
such as the one I experienced, were a very real phenomenon,
but that he was unsure of their purpose or origin. In our
conversation, he suggested that Mr. and Mrs. Clinton had
been extremely wary of the subject. 'If there's nothing in
it,' he said with a smile, 'why would that be?' My response
was, 'Let's ask Jimmy Carter, given that he promised full
disclosure during his presidency. Let's find out why he
reneged.' Mr. Rockefeller only smiled that quiet smile of his.
"Mr. Rockefeller?s UFO interests were frowned upon by his
family and are not mentioned, for example, in the full page
obituary published in the New York Times, which mentioned
every other aspect of his career in detail.
"Laurence Rockefeller was a warm, gracious, brilliant and
steadfast man. He had the courage which institutions like
the Times so sadly lack, to look with a steady eye straight
at the wall of secrecy that surrounds the UFO question, and
demand to be told the truth.
"I will miss him personally, as well as his magnificent
spirit and his dedication to the idea that humanity has the
right to know what this shadow is that haunts our world,
that is so irresponsibly ignored by our great institutions."
