RR UFO historian seeks space for storage, museum

For David Marler, UFOs are a veritable obsession.

He calls it a passion, or a calling.

Either way, he is among the leading UFO historians and archivists in the world – and his collection is growing.

In the addition he built at his home in Rio Rancho, he has  32 four-drawer file cabinets with government documents, reports, case files, hundreds of thousands of news clippings and more than 1,500 books catalogued so far.

There are also hundreds of historic audio recording and museum quality artifacts from the USAF Project Blue Book.

“There are things that people would love to see,” Marler said. “It’s part of history.”

Now, he needs a place to put it all.

Marler is looking for a facility to store the collection that can double as a UFO museum in the Albuquerque area. That includes Rio Rancho and he has already contacted Mayor Gregg Hull and met with  the University of New Mexico.

Marler will also seek a meeting with Albuquerque Mayor Tim Keller and U.S. Sen. Tim Heinrich, D-NM, who is a member of the Senate Intelligence Committee.

He has formed a non-profit, the National UFO Historical Records Center. Other affiliated with the nonprofit include top UFO historians and archivists Jan Aldrich, Rod Dyke, Barry Greenwood, Dr. Mark Rodeghier, Rob Swiatek, and others. He also has potential financial backers lined up.

The archive is dedicated to the “preservation and centralization of UFO/UAP information in the United States.”

He also has a web site. Here’s a link to a story in The DeBrief online.

The facility, he believes, could add revenue as a site for visitors — especially considering New Mexico’s history with UFOs.

Marler has researched UFOs for 32 years.

Last year, he traveled the U.S. doing eight lectures. He also landed in Nova Scotia.

The timing for the facility and nonprofit, he said, is ripe.

It’s the 75th anniversary of the creation of the term UFO. And federal agencies say the plan to dig into the subject.

In October, NASA announced its Unidentified Aerial Study. The study started Oct. 24.

Marler believes they will want to take a look at his collection, as well as the collections of other UFO historians.

“They are now wading into the deep end of the pool and willing to get involved in the subject,” Marler said.

Forming the nonprofit will make a big difference, Marler said.

It means there are tax breaks for those who contribute. It means that students at UNM can help digitize things, and get credit for doing it.

Marler, who works in the healthcare field in business development, wants the group to be an academic institution whose topic is UFOs.

“I’m very skeptical in my approach toward the subject,” he said. “We really don’t take sides when it comes to UFOs. We want to be the stewards, or curators of the history of the subject. We want to create something that’s never existed on this scale.”