Richard Hall
Well-known early UFO researcher and Assistant Director of NICAP during the Colorado Condon Project era.
Richard H. Hall, born on December 25, 1930, was a prominent American UFO researcher and writer who lived most of his life in the Washington, D.C. area. He had a bachelor's degree in philosophy from Tulane University in New Orleans. Hall was considered "the dean of ufology" and known for his scientific approach to investigating UFOs. He rejected what he called the "ding-a-ling fringe" of UFO enthusiasts who approached the subject as a belief system rather than a scientific endeavor.
Hall worked for the National Investigations Committee on Aerial Phenomena (NICAP) between 1958 and 1969, eventually becoming NICAP's assistant director. He was an eyewitness and participant in much of the early history of the UFO phenomenon in the United States and helped lobby Congress to hold public hearings and investigations. Hall edited and wrote much of "The UFO Evidence," a compilation of UFO incidents from the 1940s, 1950s, and early 1960s that NICAP considered the most persuasive evidence that UFOs were a physical phenomenon. After leaving NICAP, Hall continued to investigate UFOs, serving as the director of the Fund for UFO Research and the editor of the MUFON Journal. He also founded and edited the Journal of UFO History and was a vocal proponent of the theory that UFOs are extraterrestrial spacecraft.