Okay, this crept up on me.
In a profile article about Texan investigator Ken Gerhard published October 28, 2014, in the Houston Press, I discovered this passage:
The elder statesman of cryptozoology is Loren Coleman, who has been a leading name in the field for more than 50 years and has authored more than a dozen books about monsters on land, in the sea and in the air. One of the reasons his reputation has endured for so long is that he is, in his own words, neither a true believer nor a debunker.
“I don’t like true believers or debunkers,” says Coleman. “Ken and I are the middle ground. Skeptically open-minded or open-mindedly skeptical. People want mystery in their lives, but Ken is a very good researcher because he knows a lot about misidentification. He looks for the natural explanation.”
And later, they ran this photograph and caption:
| Photo courtesy of Ken Gerhard |
| Loren Coleman (right), an elder statesman in the field of cryptozoology and author of more than a dozen books on mysterious creatures, has been a mentor for ken Gerhard since early in Gerhard’s career. |
There it is again: “elder statesman.”
Sorry to say, all my mentors have died. Heuvelmans. Mackal. Sanderson. Many more. Who is left? Who do you see as the “elders” of the field? General cryptozoology, not specific topic elders – on Bigfoot, Loch Ness Monsters, Yetis, Lake Monsters, and so forth. Who are the other seasoned generalist, complete cryptozoologists?
My question is, who are your top three “elder statesmen” and “elder stateswomen” in Cryptozoology?
List your picks in the comments below.
Happy Halloween.
Loren, you are definitely at the top of any “elder statesmen of cryptozoology” list.
Trying to think of others is hard, because most in the field have one area of strong focus. For example – Meldrum is definitely now an “elder statesman” in the study of bigfoot, but not so much cryptozoology on the whole. Because cryptozoology is so diverse there are a lot of great researchers who specialize in certain areas. It’s sort of like asking “Who is the most respected scientist?” Steven Hawking would come to mind, but nobody would care what he had to say about the dietary habits of bears or the soil composition of red clay, because this is not his area of study. I will try however to name a couple of researchers that deserve
notice.
Adam Davies definitely comes to mind. His field work and dedication is certainly impressive.
I suppose you could also sugggest Nick Redfern. His is a multiple times published author and comments on a variety of phenomena, but some would consider even his research of cryptids to fall more into the “paranormal” category.
Should we consider the TV faces? Maybe. Josh Gates isn’t a cryptozoologist per se, but he has investigated the gamut of cryptids and has helped to introduce cryptozoological cases to new and larger audiences.
The man who inspired the article, Ken Gerhard, should also be considered. He has been an active and respected researcher for quite a while and his work is really good.
That’s all I’ve got for noe. I’ll give it some more thought.