Roswell’s UFO Festival pays tribute to N.B. researcher Stanton Friedman

New Brunswick researcher Stanton Friedman was honoured posthumously this weekend in Roswell, N.M., as the city opened its UFO Walk of Fame.

Friedman, who lived in Fredericton, and Jesse Marcel, Sr., a U.S. Air Force officer, are the first two to receive plaques on the Walk of Fame. This weekend marked the city’s UFO Festival.

For each honouree, a planet-shaped marker was revealed on the sidewalk. The ceremony was held on the 75th anniversary of the famed Roswell incident — a 1947 event that some consider the crash of a flying saucer.

Friedman was a professional ufologist and nuclear physicist. He died in 2019.

He is recognized as the original civilian investigator of the Roswell events.

Marcel was part of the military team that retrieved debris found at a ranch site in Corona, N.M., about 120 kilometres from Roswell.

He died in 1986 but not before declaring he believed the materials examined were extraterrestrial. 

Friedman’s daughters, Melissa Friedman and Rachel Friedman, and Marcel’s grandson, Jesse Marcel III, attended the ceremony.

Melissa Friedman thanked the city for holding the event.

“I think that dad would be absolutely thrilled to know that this happening,” said Friedman, a CBC producer in Halifax. “He travelled around the country, around North America, around the world … and he always made a point to get to Roswell.” 

Friedman said her father loved attending the annual UFO Festival in Roswell and would be happy to have a permanent place in community through the marker. 

In a Thursday interview with Information Morning Fredericton, Friedman said: “He was a sensitive man and I think he would just be really thrilled to know that he was being recognized.”

The City of Roswell says it plans to induct new honorees into the Walk of Fame annually during the UFO Festival.