Laurance Rockefeller died on July 11, 2004 at the age of 93,after a brief illness. Mr. Rockefeller was of exceptionalimportance to UFO research. Between 1993 and 1995, hesupported Dr. John Mack’s Center for Psychology and SocialChange in Cambridge, Massachusetts. In 1997, he funded adiscovery initiative spearheaded by long-time friend MarieGalbraith, designed to inform world leaders of the validityof the UFO issue and to increase pressure for disclosure ofgovernment files.
Mrs. Galbraith arranged for the three most influentialcivilian UFO groups in America to unite under the temporarybanner of the UFO Research Coalition: CUFOS (Center for UFOStudies), FUFOR (Fund for UFO Research) and MUFON (MutualUFO Network). Drawing on these organizations’ dataresources, a 169-page special report, “Unidentified FlyingObjects Briefing Document: The Best Available Evidence,” wascompiled. The report was sent by Mr. Rockefeller and Mrs.Galbraith to virtually every world leader, but there waslittle response. It was later published by the Fund for UFOResearch 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 UFOsecrets who had the courage to put his money into thiscause. He contributed intelligently and effectively. The UFOBriefing Document led to the production of the French COMETAReport, arguably one of the most persuasive documents everpublished regarding the UFO phenomenon.
“I attended a small conference funded by Mr. Rockefeller in1997 at the Medway Plantation in South Carolina, owned byMrs. Sidney Legendre, a Rockefeller relative. At thisconference, he told me of his private certainty, gained fromhis many contacts within the US government, that the UFOissue 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, wherehe had outlined for them the contents of a briefing that hadbeen developed out of Project Starlight, the 1993Rockefeller-funded program that evolved into today?sDisclosure Project. He said that the Clintons had notcommented 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 ourconversation, he suggested that Mr. and Mrs. Clinton hadbeen extremely wary of the subject. ‘If there’s nothing init,’ he said with a smile, ‘why would that be?’ My responsewas, ‘Let’s ask Jimmy Carter, given that he promised fulldisclosure during his presidency. Let’s find out why hereneged.’ Mr. Rockefeller only smiled that quiet smile of his.
“Mr. Rockefeller?s UFO interests were frowned upon by hisfamily and are not mentioned, for example, in the full pageobituary published in the New York Times, which mentionedevery other aspect of his career in detail.
“Laurence Rockefeller was a warm, gracious, brilliant andsteadfast man. He had the courage which institutions likethe Times so sadly lack, to look with a steady eye straightat the wall of secrecy that surrounds the UFO question, anddemand to be told the truth.
“I will miss him personally, as well as his magnificentspirit and his dedication to the idea that humanity has theright to know what this shadow is that haunts our world,that is so irresponsibly ignored by our great institutions.”
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