Kenny Young

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Kenny Young, 2004
Kenny Young, 2004
Kenny Young (1966 - January 31, 2005), webmaster of UFO Research: Cincinnati!, was a multiaward winning television producer, director and writer and a State Section Director for the Mutual UFO Network (MUFON) and a public relations director of Tri-State Advocates for Scientific Knowledge (TASK).¹

Biography

He was an independent UFO researcher and often lectured to large audiences about the UFO mystery. He served as a host, panelist and debater on several Northern Kentucky / Cincinnati based TV programs including the award-winning "UFO Update: LIVE!"² and the award-winning documentary "UFO Report"³. He and his cases were featured on "UFOs: The Field Guide" (SciFi 2003), "Confirmation: The Hard Evidence of Aliens Among Us?" (NBC 1999), and "Sightings".

In addition to evaluating UFO and related claims, conducting field investigations and interviewing eyewitnesses and public officials, Young worked successfully to obtain secret UFO video recordings held by the Department of Energy and has also obtained numerous 911 audiotapes of police UFO incidents. In addition, he employed the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) to petition the U.S. government for the release of UFO-related documents.

His articles have appeared in the "MUFON UFO Journal", "UFO Magazine", "FATE Magazine" and "Equinox Magazine" and his research efforts were referenced in The Associated Press, The Cincinnati Post and The Cincinnati Enquirer. He was the host and organizer of the 39th Annual National UFO Conference (2002) held in Cincinnati, OH.

He appeared on numerous radio programs including "Strange Days Indeed with Errol Bruce Knapp, "The Jeff Rense Show", "Coast to Coast A.M. with Art Bell", "Late Night with George Noory, "The SciZone with Bill Boshears", "The XZone with Rob McConnell", "The Jim Hickman Report" and many others. He was interviewed on television news programs in Cincinnati, Dayton, and Columbus, Ohio.

Kenny Young lived in Florence, Kentucky. Outside of Ufology he was a musician and artist and he was employed as Infochannel Coordinator for the Telecommunications Board of Northern Kentucky (TBNK) in Covington, Kentucky. He was also a freelance videographer and editor, specializing in graphic design.

Young remained skeptical and objective concerning UFOs, but felt "that a sober evaluation of the data suggests the phenomena warrants further scrutiny."

His most famous quote was written on 12/26/2001 in an email to fellow Ufologists Sean Feeney and Paul Koch:

The UFO research and investigation business is a cruel and shallow money trench, a long plastic hallway where thieves and pimps of corrupt ideology run free, agenda dictates, delusion is rampant and ignorance prevails. The infestation of wrongful motivation and the beggarly depths of belief reign supreme amidst a universal disregard for truth and factual actuality... where good men die like dogs. There's also a negative side...⁴

Background

Young studied under the direction of Leonard H. Stringfield in the early 1990s. His longtime friend Bob Leibold influenced his decision to break into the field by bringing Kenny with him to "UFO Group" meetings in Ohio. His involvement with the television program "UFO Update: Live!" led him to begin investigating UFO sightings in 1994. His first case involved examing an alleged UFO caught on videotape in Clermont County, Ohio in November of that year (The Clermont County Recording⁵

In 1998 he and fellow ufologist Chris Coffey interviewed Larry Rogers and Curt Robinson, the authors of "Ice Man Down", a still unpublished revelation on the Roswell UFO incident. This interview provides the only published insights into the book.⁶

Famous cases

Associated organizations

Publications

Obituary

Kenny died due to leukemia on January 31, 2005. His UFO-related materials were left to fellow ufologists: the website was left to Sean Feeney, his digital files to Bob Leibold, and his paper files to Donnie Blessing. His paper files were then passed to the Ohio MUFON State Director William E. Jones, who donated them as follows:

"These were, for the most part, what I will call raw files, i.e. emails, letters, notes, drawings and so forth about specific cases or issues with regard to UFOs that had gotten Kenny's attention. There were many news clippings scattered through out the collection, some connected to cases and specific issues, but most not. Some of these carried the name and date of the newspaper from which they came, but others unfortunately did not. Going through these files was a daunting task, but as it turned out, the effort was well worth while. I want to document for you what I have done with these files.

"A small number of items were stand alone documents that were unrelated or not closely related to the rest of Kenny's files. Each was what I will call bibliographical, i.e. they can be referenced for research as identifiable documents, such as copy of a newsletter, booklet or report. Most of those were donated to the Ohio State University collection or, if they were specific in some way about the State of Ohio, they were donated to the Ohio Historical Society here in Columbus. They are not labeled at those places as being part of Kenny's files, although I told each institution where they came from. For example, you can’t go to either and ask for Kenny's collection of these items.

"Most of Kenny's news clippings that were unrelated to his specific case or special interest files were donated to the Archives for UFO Research (AFU) in Sweden.

"Kenny's case and special interest files were collected and bound up by various means, mostly in three ring notebooks, and donated to the Ohio Historical Society. I asked that each of these special files by listed under Kenny's name. In case you want to use these collections some day once they are indexed and put on the shelf, here is a list of what was donated.

  1. Norwood, Ohio UFO Searchlight Case, 1949 – 1950, research notes and papers (three volumes).
  2. Report on the Saucer Crash at Cape Girardeau, 1941.
  3. TriState Advocates for Scientific Knowledge, Ohio UFO Sightings.
  4. Report on the UFO Incident at the Lebanon Correctional Institute, April 8, 1993.
  5. Trumbull County, Ohio UFO Incident, Summer 1994.
  6. TriState Advocates for Scientific Knowledge, Background.
  7. The Truth about TWA Flight 800 – The UFO Controversy.
  8. TriState Advocates for Scientific Knowledge – The Clermont County Recording.
  9. Information on the UFO Sighting Near Waynesville, Ohio, April 25, 2001.
  10. The Mantell UFO Incident, January 7, 1948, Miscellaneous Documents.

"I trust that some of you will be curious enough about Kenny's files to look at them someday. These files represent Kenny's works in progress. A web site is being maintained at http://kenny.anomalyresponse.com/ that presents Kenny's finished products. Kenny accomplished a lot in his few years of investigating the UFO mystery across Ohio and in other places. His work deserves to be remembered. And maybe somewhere within his work the answer lies, still hidden from us.⁷

References

  1. UFO Research: Cincinnati
  2. 2004 Blue Chip Awards Link 1 Link 2
  3. 2002 Blue Chip Awards Link 1 Link 2
  4. Personal correspondence, Kenny Young, 26 Dec. 2001
  5. Report on the Saucer Crash at Cape Girardeau, 1941. (Self-published, 1999)
  6. Roswell Revelation
  7. Personal correspondence, William E. Jones, 9 Feb. 2007

Obituaries

Awards

Cases

Other published mentions: