Loren E. Gross

Loren E. Gross, a retired General Motors engineer from Fremont, California, was a pioneering UFO historian who served as an Air Force radar operator during the Korean War era, experiencing two personal UFO-related incidents without tracking any on radar. In the 1960s, he began exhaustive research at Berkeley's Bancroft Library, compiling early airship reports that fueled his seminal works, including the 1974 privately printed "The UFO Wave of 1896." Gross co-founded the Sign Historical Group, aiding in acquiring key UFO files, and devoted thirty years to his magnum opus, "UFOs: A History / The Fifth Horseman of the Apocalypse," a nearly 11,000-page series of over 100 monographs chronicling UFO sightings, official responses, and cultural reactions year by year from 1896 onward. Eschewing theories, his methodical, witness-focused approach—drawing from thousands of newspaper accounts and declassified documents—disclosed hidden layers of the phenomenon, earning him enduring respect in ufology.