1950 Press Photo of Daniel Fry

Daniel William Fry (1908 - 1992) was an American contactee who claimed he had multiple contacts with an alien and took a ride in a remotely piloted alien spacecraft in 1949. Image File history File links Daniel_fry_press_photo. ... Image File history File links Daniel_fry_press_photo. ... Contactees are persons who claim to be in regular contact with extraterrestrials. ... The existence of extraterrestrial life remains hypothetical though human beings continue to search Extraterrestrial life is life that may exist and originate outside the planet Earth. ...

Fry's White Sands incident

From the White Sands Proving Ground in New Mexico where he worked, Fry had planned to join the July 4th, 1949 evening festivities in nearby Las Cruces but missed the last bus. Finding the Bachelor Officers Quarters (BOQ) where he stayed too hot, he decided to explore a path in the desert he had never been down. There, Fry claimed a 30 foot diameter, 16 foot high "oblate spheroid" landed in front of him, and he talked remotely with the pilot who operated the craft from a "mother ship" 900 miles above Earth. Daniel claimed he was invited aboard and flown over New York City and back in 30 minutes. [ 3 ] During the flight and subsequent meetings, Fry asserted that he talked with the pilot named Alan, (pronounced "a-lawn") who gave Fry information on physics, the pre-history of earth including Atlantis and Lemuria and the foundations of civilization. Fry failed a lie detector examination about his claims [ 4 ]. White Sands Missile Range (WSMR), formerly known as the White Sands Proving Grounds, is located in a valley between the Organ Mountains and the Sacramento Mountains of New Mexico. ... An oblate spheroid is ellipsoid having a shorter axis and two equal longer axes. ... A mother ship is a vessel or aircraft that carries a smaller vessel or aircraft that operates independently from it. ... Nickname: The Big Apple Official website: City of New York Government Counties (Boroughs) Bronx (The Bronx) New York (Manhattan) Queens (Queens) Kings (Brooklyn) Richmond (Staten Island) Mayor Michael Bloomberg (R) Geographical characteristics Area Total 468. ... Athanasius Kirchers map of a possible Atlantis location. ... Lemuria is the name of a hypothetical lost land variously located in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. ... Polygraph results are sometimes recorded on a chart recorder A polygraph or lie detector is a device which measures and records several physiological variables such as blood pressure, heart rate, respiration and skin conductivity while a series of questions is being asked, in an attempt to detect lies. ...

Understanding Inc.

Typical Understanding Newsletter cover

In 1954, Fry published his first book called "The White Sands Incident" and a year later started an organization called "Understanding" which published a monthly newsletter by the same name. Understanding was eventually incorporated as a non-profit corporation, which was described in a 1959 pamphlet as "From a start of nine members at El Monte, California in 1955, Understanding Inc., has grown into an international organization of more then sixty units and many members-at-large throughout the world. These units and members have sponsored hundreds of lectures and meetings, circulated thousands of books and magazines to reach many people in the spirit of 'bringing about a greater degree of understanding among all the peoples of the earth and preparing them for their eventual inevitable meetings with other races in space. " [ 2 ] Image File history File links Download high resolution version (556x875, 172 KB) Summary Understanding cover Source: Understanding newsletter on danielfry. ... Image File history File links Download high resolution version (556x875, 172 KB) Summary Understanding cover Source: Understanding newsletter on danielfry. ...

Using Alan's ideas as a foundation, Understanding Inc. served to spread alternative social and spiritual ideas by speeches, meetings and in the newsletter. The newsletter, first published in 1956, was typically about 20 pages long, published monthly and ran for 240+ issues until 1979.

Understanding Inc. peaked in the early sixties with about 1,500 paid members and 60 or so "Units" in America. Mid-way through its waning years in 1974, Understanding was donated 55 acres of land including eight buildings near Tonopah, Arizona by Enid Smith. The buildings, first intended as a religious college, had the ironic feature of being round and saucer shaped. Understanding Inc. had fully taken the property over by 1976 but given Daniel's tight finances during his retirement and the falling Understanding membership, the property fell into disrepair. In late September and early October of 1978, the kitchen and the library were burned to the ground by an arsonist and never rebuilt. Tonopah may refer to: Tonopah, Arizona, United States Tonopah, Nevada, United States Tonopah Test Range, Nevada, United States This is a disambiguation page — a navigational aid which lists other pages that might otherwise share the same title. ...

Understanding Inc. was considered by some to be a cult, but Daniel was clear it wasn't in a 1969 Daily Courier article "The group is not mystic, he says, and is not a flying saucer watching organization although some members hold definite beliefs and interests in both areas. Understanding Inc. which is a non-profit, tax exempt corporation, works on the principles that there is nothing that members are required to believe or accept or do, Dr. Fry said." [ 1 ]

From 1954 onward, with little reimbursement, Fry gave thousands of lectures to organizations such as service clubs, radio and television stations. He also published other books such as "Atoms, Galaxies and Understanding", "To Men of Earth", "Steps to the Stars", "Curve of Development", "Can God Fill Teeth?" and "Verse and Worse". He, along with other contactees would attend the yearly Spacecraft Convention at Giant Rock in Yucca Valley for the next twenty years, hosted by a friend and fellow contactee, George Van Tassel. George Van Tassel (1910-1978) A UFO enthusiast and religious type who in 1958 commenced building—but never quite completed— The Integratron in the California desert not far from Joshua Tree and Yucca Valley. ...

Key points in Fry's life

The first one was in late 1919 when Emily, Daniel's Grandmother who was his sole guardian, made the decision to move to South Pasadena, California to be near Daniel's uncle, Walter. Daniel would live in and around the South Pasadena area for the next 35 years and get in on the ground floor of the early rocket research which Pasadena was host to in the 40s and 50s.

The next important point was in 1949. After the war, when there were massive layoffs, Daniel had moved to Oregon to scrape out an existence. But because of Daniel's work with Edmund Sawyer at Crescent and other related rocketry work, Daniel got a job with Aerojet setting up instrumentation to test rockets at the test range in White Sands, New Mexico. It was that year he would have his reported "incident" with Alan and alter the trajectory of his life. Aerojet is a major rocket and missile propulsion manufacturer based primarily in Sacramento, California with divisions in Redmond, Washington, Orange, VA, Gainesville, VA, and Camden, AK. Their products include a wide range of propulsion, from main engines used on a number of NASA vehicles and ballistic missiles, down to stationkeeping...

Most of the events following 1919 and 1949 were a result of the changes that had happened during those years. After 1919, Daniel would turn his working knowledge of explosives into jobs with rockets, which would evolve, thanks in part to his early involvement with Crescent, into jobs with rocket instrumentation. After 1949, because of his supposed contact with Alan, he would be a founding member of the contactee movement, form Understanding, publish 240+ issues of the Understanding newsletter, author multiple books and give thousands of lectures, interviews and talks.

The last point of interest was in 1978 when everything started to crumble. For Christmas that year, Daniel would note with frustration the dwindling membership and see the library and kitchen at the Tonopah acreage burned to the ground by an arsonist. Shortly before the fire, Daniel would turn over the Understanding organization to Mr. and Mrs. Sellman and move to Alamogordo, New Mexico with Florence. [ 8 ] Less then a year later, the Sellmans quit, along with a number of other long time board members like Tahahlita, because of Daniel's refusal to negotiate a settlement over the Tonopah acreage lawsuit related to Enid Smith's contested will. With the Understanding organization in tatters, the publication of the newsletter ceased in 1979 for the first time in over 20 years. A year later, Daniel's second wife, Florence, would be dead from breast cancer.

Daniel's Christmas present for the year 1980 was to be seventy two in an empty house in a new town and already forgotten by the world at large.

Professional life

1950s Crescent Marketing Pamphlet

In his professional life, he worked as a "powder man" or explosive supervisor in the 1930s and 1940s on such jobs as the Salina Dam near San Luis Obispo, California, for the Basic Magnesium Corporation and on the Pan American Highway in Honduras. From 1949 until 1954, Daniel worked at Aerojet designing, building and installing transducers for control, feedback and measurement of rockets during flight and static tests. From 1954 onward, Fry helped build the Crescent Engineering & Research Company into a multimillion dollar company along with the founder, Edmund Sawyer, eventually becoming the Vice President of Research and a stockholder. Crescent made parts related to rockets including transducers, and did JATO rocket nozzle rework during the war. [ 6 ] Image File history File links Download high resolution version (700x944, 84 KB) Summary Front Page of a 1950s Crescent Engineering and Research Marketing Pamphlet Source: Danielfry. ... Image File history File links Download high resolution version (700x944, 84 KB) Summary Front Page of a 1950s Crescent Engineering and Research Marketing Pamphlet Source: Danielfry. ... The city of San Luis Obispo San Luis Obispo (also SLO) is the county seat of San Luis Obispo County, California, USA. Luis is pronounced as Lewis. ... Official language(s) English Capital Sacramento Largest city Los Angeles Area  - Total   - Width   - Length    - % water  - Latitude  - Longitude Ranked 3rd 158,302 sq mi  410,000 km² 250 miles  402. ... The Pan-American Highway (Carretera Panamericana in Spanish) is a collective system of roads, approximately 16,000 miles (25,750 km) long, that nearly links the mainland nations of the Americas in a roughly unified stretch of highway. ... Aerojet is a major rocket and missile propulsion manufacturer based primarily in Sacramento, California with divisions in Redmond, Washington, Orange, VA, Gainesville, VA, and Camden, AK. Their products include a wide range of propulsion, from main engines used on a number of NASA vehicles and ballistic missiles, down to stationkeeping... A transducer is a device, usually electrical or electronic, that converts one type of energy to another. ... JATO is an acronym for Jet Assisted Take Off. ...

In the early 1960s Fry sold his share in Crescent and moved up to Merlin, Oregon where he ran the Merlin Development Company until moving to Tonopah, Arizona in the 1970s. There he looked after Enid Smith until her death and managed her estate including property she had donated to Understanding, Inc. Shortly before Understanding ceased to function in 1979, Daniel retired to Alamogordo, New Mexico but a few years later, restarted publication of the Understanding newsletter, by now reduced to a single 8" x 14" page, which he continued until 1989. Tonopah (IPA: ), Arizona is an unincorporated town located in western Maricopa County, approximately 50 miles west of downtown Phoenix off Interstate 10. ... Alamogordo is a city located in Otero County, New Mexico, United States of America. ...

Personal life

Daniel William Fry was born July 19th, 1908 near a small steamboat landing on the Mississippi River called Verdon Township in the Northern part of Aitkin County, Minnesota to Fred Nelson Fry and Clara Jane Baehr. Clara died in 1916 and left Daniel and his older sister, Florence, to be raised by their grandmother while Fred found work where he could as a carpenter and labourer. Fred died two years later in 1918 during the influenza pandemic and left Daniel orphaned at the age of ten. He and his sister were reared under the guardianship of his grandmother and came with her to South Pasadena, California in 1920. Daniel attended the now defunct El Centro Elementary school and went to high school in Antelope Valley. [ 5 ] This article is about the river in the United States. ... Verdon Township is a township located in Aitkin County, Minnesota. ... Aitkin County is a county located in the state of Minnesota. ... Official language(s) None Capital Saint Paul Largest city Minneapolis Area  - Total  - Width  - Length  - % water  - Latitude  - Longitude Ranked 12th 225,365 km² 400 km 645 km 8. ... The Spanish Flu Pandemic, also known as , or , was an unusually severe and deadly strain of avian influenza, a viral infectious disease, that killed some 50 million to 100 million people worldwide over about a year in 1918 and 1919 [1]. It is thought to have been one of the... South Pasadena is the name of two places in the United States: South Pasadena in California South Pasadena in Florida This is a disambiguation page — a navigational aid which lists other pages that might otherwise share the same title. ... Official language(s) English Capital Sacramento Largest city Los Angeles Area  - Total   - Width   - Length    - % water  - Latitude  - Longitude Ranked 3rd 158,302 sq mi  410,000 km² 250 miles  402. ... A truck passes eastbound along the busy Highway 58 through the Antelope Valley. ...

His parents left practically no estate and at the age of eighteen he found himself entirely dependent upon his own resources. He completed high school but because of increasing unemployment that preceded the 1930's depression he abandoned plans for university. However, he found what jobs he could and studied during the evenings. He worked through the subjects he would have taken at university by using material from the Pasadena Public Library. He became interested in chemistry and eventually specialized in the use of explosives finally settling on the new field of rocketry. [ 7 ] Pasadena is a city located in Los Angeles County, California, United States. ...

He married his first wife, Elma, in 1934 and had three children. He divorced Elma in 1964 while in Merlin, Oregon and took up common-law residence with Bertha (aka Tahahlita) until moving to Tonopah, Arizona in the mid 1970s. There he married Florence and before Florence died of breast cancer in 1980, they retired to Alamogordo, New Mexico. Daniel then married Cleona, a local Alamogordo resident in 1982 and lived with her until his death on December 20th, 1992. Tonopah (IPA: ), Arizona is an unincorporated town located in western Maricopa County, approximately 50 miles west of downtown Phoenix off Interstate 10. ... Alamogordo is a city located in Otero County, New Mexico, United States of America. ...

References

• [1] "Understanding Inc., We Don't Sit Around Watching Saucers", Daily Courier, Grants Pass, Oregon, Dec. 26th, 1969, Section B, Page 6
• [2] "Understanding, Incorporated - History, Present Status, Future Objectives", 1959 Pamphlet, Understanding Inc.
• [3] "The White Sands Incident", Daniel W. Fry, 1954, published by Franklin Thomas.
• [4] Curtis Peebles (1994). Watch the Skies! A Chronicle of the Flying Saucer Myth, Smithsonian Institution. ISBN 1-56098-343-4 Pg 104.
• [5] "Verse and Worse", Daniel Fry, 1979, Exposition Press, Hicksville, New York, Pg 4.
• [6] "The Pacific Rocket Society and the Founding of the International Astronautical Federation 1944-1960, a memoir", Edmund Sawyer, Chapter 19 from "History of Rocketry and Astronautics".
• [7] "They Rode in Space Ships", Gavin Gibbons, 1957, Citadel Press, page 4.
• [8] "Understanding", November & December issue, Vol. 23, No 8., page 19-23.

Curtis Peebles is an aerospace historian for the Smithsonian Institution and the author of several books. ... The Smithsonian Institution Building or Castle on the National Mall serves as the Institutions headquarters. ...

External links

• DanielFry.com - for more information including pictures, videos, recordings and over 4000 pages of searchable HTML text from his books and the Understanding newsletters.