Oregonian Profile of Keith Rowell
A freelance reporter/journalist, Mike Cade, contacted your Assistant State Director, Keith Rowell, in the late summer of 2007 and finally got an interview arranged. This is the story he wrote from the interview. (Note that there are some unfortunate errors in the story, but by and large Mike did a good job. You never know how you will be treated in the media when you take UFOs seriously. The Oregonian's online version of the article also differs a little from the print version.) Download an image copy of the article.
[From the Oregonian, Southwest Weekly section, October 25, 2007]
It Came From Outer Space, Maybe
Aliens: For Keith Rowell, tracking UFOs in Oregon requires both skepticism and belief
By Michael Cade
Special to the Oregonian
Unidentified flying objects. Little green men. Flying saucers.
Would you believe all of these things have a local connection?
West Linn's Keith Rowell is the assistant state director for the Mutual UFO Network. That means he spends a lot of his free time investigating UFO claims, cattle mutilations and other bizarre phenomena dubbed "paranormal."
He can effortlessly rattle off factoids about Project Blue Book — the Air Force's official investigation of UFOs in the 1950s and '60s — and just as easily dissect the findings of John Mack, the late Harvard psychiatry professor who said he was an alien abductee.
Plus, Rowell's basement boasts shelves and shelves of books about aliens, UFOs and flying saucers. His office computer is full of images and sound files that document strange aerial activity from Vancouver to southern Oregon.
Rowell is cognizant of the fact that UFO buffs are often regarded as credulous and naive. He approaches ufology as any scholar or scientist might — through a skeptical lens.
"Being skeptical is a necessary part," he says. "But extreme skepticism, I think, is counterproductive."
Knowing that debunkers lie in wait, Rowell chooses his words carefully. But the self-described Navy brat still comes off as passionate and enthusiastic when speaking about ufology.
A technical writer — "I wrote the computer manuals that nobody likes to read," he quips — he is an engaging conversationalist who touches on topics from the consciousness-altering drug DMT to transpersonal psychology to old-fashioned, by-the-book astronomy. Rowell says potential MUFON members are required to pass a basic science test — with a score of 80 percent.
He says he's had a UFO encounter on his back deck — he describes seeing an object about 500 to 1000 feet away that was bathed in suffused light and traveling in a rotary motion.
But he admits, "The (UFOs) that I have seen, videotaped and photographed could, by some stretch of the imagination, be balloons. Party balloons."
From Rowell's point of view, though, there is one UFO case that was anything but a balloon — the alleged 1947 spaceship crash outside Roswell, N.M. Rowell does not buy that the crash resulted from a failed Air Force project involving high-altitude balloons. He asserts, citing the work of such UFO researchers as Stanton Friedman, that there is "no real doubt" the U.S. military captured a saucer and several aliens that day.
Rowell also opines that the military hid its discovery with maximum efficiency, "as they always do."
As for the here and now, Rowell sounds more than a little discouraged when describing the financial woes encountered by groups like MUFON.
"People who try to study (ufology) scientifically cannot get any money from the U.S. government," he says. "And it turns out philanthropic organizations and foundations won't touch you, either."
Thus, if MUFON ever gets money thrown its way, it comes from the occasional entrepreneur or celebrity. The organization does the bulk of its work on a shoestring budget; annual membership dues are essential.
Doug Hartley, 46, of Hillsboro became an official member of the group in February. He holds Rowell in high regard.
"He's got such a depth of knowledge, not just UFOs and such," says Hartley. "He's kind of taken me as an apprentice."
Rowell encourages UFO neophytes to read as much as they can on the subject.
"If you really want to understand what's going with UFOs, I tell people, 'You've got to read,'" he says. "And don't read on the Internet. Go to a large public library, not an academic library.”
Mike Cade: william_michael_cade@hotmail.com
[photo portrait of Keith Rowell]
[taken by] GREG MARSHALL
[caption]
Keith Rowell counts himself among the UFO investigators — "people who actually put the boots on the ground and talk to people who see something that they think is a UFO," he says.
[sidebar]
Mutual UFO Network
The Oregon division of MUFON meets at 7 p.m. the second Tuesday of each month at Bourne Plaza, 1441 S.E. 122nd Ave. Information: http://oregonmufon.com
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