UFO study group presents award to longtime researcher

LIMA — After spending more than six decades researching UFOs, John P. Timmerman has developed a reputation in the field as the one of the premier UFO researchers.

“He knows everything there is to know. If you want to know anything about UFOs, John’s the one to ask,” said Mike Krick, president of the Lima Area UFO Research Associates.

Describing him as “a true gentleman, ufologist, and all-around good guy,” the group honored Timmerman on Wednesday evening with several awards for his life’s work.

Tom Bowman, the group’s secretary, read letters from the area and beyond, including one from Lima Mayor David Berger.

“I’m overwhelmed. That’s the only word I can think of,” Timmerman said. “It gives me a kind of a thank you for everything I was trying to do.”

Timmerman, 85, began studying UFOs in 1947, going on to serve as an investigator and treasurer for The Center for UFO Studies in Chicago. He built a traveling display of UFO information that was presented all over the United States and as far away as China and Japan. The exhibit is now in the UFO Museum in Roswell, N.M.

“I’m hoping to retire from more physical correspondence activities for the UFO phenomenon because there are so many others in the world who are trying to squeeze out the truth.”

But the longtime researcher seems unlikely to ever stop helping people look for answers.

“It’s something that they’re all welcome to ask about if they wish to do so,” he said.

Timmerman suspects that governments around the world continue working to hide evidence of UFOs, and that it’s possible that all U.S. presidents since the 1940s have also been kept in the dark.

“I don’t know how they’re going to get out of this but they’ll have to one of these days,” he said. “The world is going to have to know. And we’re not talking about just English, French, German, Italian. We’re talking about the planet, because we have to have a good plan for the planet.”

He and Krick both acknowledge that not everyone believes, but both said people should look at the facts.

“If people don’t believe, you can talk till you’re blue in the face and they’re not going to believe it until they see it.”