David Marler

David Marler is a UFO historian, archivist, author, and executive director of the National UFO Historical Records Center, a New Mexico nonprofit focused on preserving UFO and UAP historical materials for research and public access.¹² His work is most visible in two connected lanes: the historical analysis of triangular UFO reports and the consolidation of civilian and government records into a physical and digital archive.¹³⁴⁵

  Research Profile

Marler joined the Mutual UFO Network in 1990 and later served as a field investigator, state section director, and Illinois state director.¹ The University of New Mexico described him in 2017 as a UFO investigator presenting the Willard Lecture "UFOS at UNM: A skeptical believer presents his research," where he argued for separating spurious UFO material from a smaller body of reports he considered worthy of scientific scrutiny.⁶ His institutional biography says he has lectured at the university level, assisted documentary productions for History, Learning, Discovery, Science, and Smithsonian channels, and earned a psychology degree from Southern Illinois University Edwardsville.¹

  Triangular UFO Work

Marler's book Triangular UFOs: An Estimate of the Situation was published by CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform in 2013 as a 286-page study of triangular UFO reports.³ The book description says Marler collected, collated, and analyzed hundreds of reports using newspaper archives, declassified military reports, UFO books and journals, and transcripts of first-hand interviews.³ NUFOHRC describes the book as an effort to create a profile of triangular objects and a historical narrative around their reported appearances.¹ CUFOS summarizes Marler's working profile as 10 primary and 10 secondary characteristics, including corner lights, a central red light, large apparent size, hovering, silent flight, slow movement, low-altitude flight, abrupt turns, and rapid acceleration.⁷ A 2016 review in the Journal of Scientific Exploration noted that Marler treated the origin of the reported craft as unknown rather than asserting an extraterrestrial explanation.⁸

  Illinois Casework

One of Marler's cited field investigations was the January 5, 2000, southwestern Illinois case, reported across communities near Scott Air Force Base while he was MUFON's Illinois state director.⁶⁷ UNM's profile says multiple police officers reported a triangular UFO east of St. Louis and that Marler compared their descriptions with Belgian police sightings from the preceding decade.⁶ CUFOS summarizes the case as involving five on-duty police officers and other witnesses who reported a massive silent triangular or rectangular craft at unusually low altitude and speed, with officers maintaining radio contact during the event.⁷ CUFOS also notes that Marler initially read the reports as indicating one unknown object below 1,000 feet, while later reports suggested as many as three objects.⁷ The Journal of Scientific Exploration review described Marler as a first-hand investigator in the Illinois case who interviewed witnesses and pursued additional testimony after the event.⁸

  Archive Preservation

The National UFO Historical Records Center states that its mission is to collect, preserve, and provide historical UFO materials while supporting serious research and accurate historical chronicling regardless of belief or non-belief in the subject.² NUFOHRC identifies itself as a 501(c)(3) nonprofit in New Mexico that preserves and digitizes documents and media, and it says its network collectively holds the largest UFO records collection in the United States.² Its collections overview lists official and civilian case files, audio and video recordings, correspondence, photographs, books, magazines, news clippings, research notes, microfilm, digital files, and physical artifacts.⁴ The same overview identifies NICAP, CUFOS, and APRO as three major historical case-file collections held by the center.⁴

  Institutional Development

A November 18, 2022, NUFOHRC press release introduced the center as a new 501(c)(3) led by Marler and described its goal as centralizing UFO and UAP historical data in a freestanding archive in the Albuquerque area.⁵ The release said the collection already included materials from more than 25 countries and more than 70 U.S. and foreign individuals, with CUFOS materials serving as one cornerstone.⁵ A June 25, 2024, Rio Rancho Public Schools and NUFOHRC press release announced a memorandum of agreement, effective June 24, 2024, to house and secure historical UFO documents, including original declassified military reports, within existing school facilities.⁹ The same release identified Marler as NUFOHRC's executive director and set an initial five-year term for the partnership, with possible renewal.⁹ The Debrief reported in October 2024 that NUFOHRC opened its Rio Rancho facility in cooperation with Rio Rancho Public Schools and that its holdings included government and civilian records, video and audio recordings, photographs, magazines, and historical artifacts.¹⁰

  Evidentiary Role

Marler's evidentiary role is primarily documentary: he preserves source trails, compares historical reports, and makes legacy collections available for researchers who want to test older claims against surviving records.¹²⁴⁵ The strongest documented value of his work is the movement of scattered private and organizational files into a curated archive, not proof that any specific triangular UFO report was non-human technology.⁸²⁴¹⁰ The dossier should therefore treat Marler as an archivist and historical analyst whose work can clarify how UFO stories were reported, investigated, revised, and preserved over time.⁶⁷⁴¹⁰

  References

  References

1. nufohrc.org ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵ ↩⁶

2. nufohrc.org ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵

3. books.google.com ↩ ↩² ↩³

4. nufohrc.org ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵ ↩⁶

5. project1947.com ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴

6. news.unm.edu ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴

7. cufos.org ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵

8. journalofscientificexploration.org ↩ ↩² ↩³

9. kob.com ↩ ↩²

10. thedebrief.org ↩ ↩² ↩³