Following Jim Lorenzen's death, Coral attempted to prop up APRO's crumbling fragments to some degree. High on her mind was an attempt to locate a missing fragment from the alleged Ubatuba, Brazil UFO, and on May 7, 1987 she phoned me for assistance. I'll not belabor the details here because I wrote an article about this in 2000 which ultimately found a home on the Web at the NICAP site (see link in margin). At the NICAP on-site search engine simply type in my name or "Coral Lorenzen and the Ubatuba UFO Fragments."
By May of 1987 Coral's emotions and health seemed frail even during telephone conversations, and less than a year later she, too, was dead (April 12, 1988). Regular readers here know that I've posted numerous historical items regarding APRO and the Lorenzens almost from the start of this blog, so I urge newcomers interested in APRO's work to start back in April of 2007 and work forward.
However, today I'm posting the remainder of my APRO-related letters, and again I apologize for deleting various names and information online, for reasons of my own. Even with blanks, though, you'll get a good picture of APRO's status.
Regarding that final letter from a former APRO board member in 1989: It turned out that APRO's extensive and invaluable case files, despite the assertions expressed in the letter, ended up in the possession of people whom, apparently, did nothing more with them. They are not affiliated with CUFOS, though I am told they did have an association or friendship of some kind with the late Dr. Hynek. The UFO research community has experienced years of troubling silence about the intended and ultimate disposition of these essential scientific and historical reports -- last I heard. At the very least, it's a shame that a complete collection of The A.P.R.O. Bulletin hasn't been made available publicly, as were NICAP's old UFO Investigator issues (on compact disc, available via CUFOS).
If there's more of an update on the post-APRO situation, I would certainly be pleased to know. But, at long last, we have reached the end of a lengthy winding trail, peppered with APRO correspondence, phone calls and UFO sighting reports. Beyond all else, we must remember that organizations such as APRO did not spring up out of frivolity. They were created out of necessity by caring, dedicated people who realized by way of the best evidence available that the UFO is real and exists as a true scientific mystery, unlikely to disappear simply because government, commercial airline and debunkers' proclamations attempt to chase the issue away. Jim and Coral Lorenzen dismissed and reacted to that approach in the fifties, as they most assuredly would today. The unfortunate loss of their intellect in the UFO research arena reminds us that common sense has become a stranger to a society which is more willing than ever to be either cowed about politics or receptive to utter nonsense about UFOs.
