A Personal Tribute by J. Antonio Huneeus

Col. Colman S. von Keviczky (1909-98), the internationally prominent ufologist and Hungarian military
scientist, passed away last July 27th in New York City, where he had lived since 1952. He was 88 years old,
and had a long productive life before succumbing at the very end to cancer. The memorial service was held
on July 30th at the Hungarian Reformed Church in Manhattan, attended by his wife Yolanda, his son Attila,
and dozens of members of both the local Hungarian community and NY-area ufologists.

It's difficult for me to write his obituary. I knew him for some 20 years and was personally very close to
"Colman bacsi" (Uncle Colman), as Hungarians called him affectionately. One could say, in fact, that he
was my UFO mentor when I took my first tentative steps in the UFO field 21 years ago. Some, no doubt,
will think his long-held hypothesis of a UFO "galactic task force earthbound operation" is controversial.
Colman pioneered the idea that Star Wars (SDI or missile defense program) was aimed at the aliens long
before the also recently deceased Col. Corso put it in his Roswell book. But those who knew Colman loved
his good-natured, expansive personality and his deep dedication and conviction towards UFO research.

Colman's life can be divided roughly in two periods: the first devoted to his military career in Hungary, and
the second to UFOs from his home base in Queens, New York, with access to a worldwide network that
stretched from North and South America to Europe and the Far East. He was in fact less known in the USA
than in many other countries, particularly Hungary and Japan, where some of his "UFO memoranda" was
published as commercial books. Most of his work consisted in these Memoranda (reports of 150 or so
pages with many original military documents) privately published and distributed by his own organization
ICUFON (Intercontinental U.F.O. Galactic Spacecraft Research and Analytic Network), founded by him in
1966.

It was at his typically New York City small ICUFON office full of ufological goodies that I met over the
years a number of researchers from all over the world, such as Michael Hesemann of Germany, Bruce
Cathie of New Zealand, Johsen Takano of the Cosmo Isle Hakui Museum in Japan, Thierry Pinvidic from
France (now a skeptic of the socio-psychological school), the late New York City police detective Pete
Mazzola, founder of the SBI, Peter Robbins, co-author of the Bentwaters book 'Left At East Gate,' and
countless others. I myself brought to his office many ufologists from Russia, Spain, Argentina, Japan, and
even India. Colman was one of the must-see stops for any ufologist visiting New York, a permanent fixture
of our local scene, always there, always willing to show what he used to call "genuine official evidences."
He used to appear periodically at UFO press conferences organized by publicist Mike Luckman of the New
York Center for UFO Research (NYCUFOR). We will really miss him

Colman was really an idealist from another era, born August 21, 1909 in the final days of the dual
Austro-Hungarian Hapsburg monarchy. He studied at the historical Ludovica Royal Hungarian Military
University in Budapest, graduating in 1932 as a First Lieutenant with a Master of Military Science and
Engineering (MMSE). Promoted to Major in 1938, he was the founder and Chief of the Audio-Visual
Military Education Department at the Royal Hungarian Army General Staff until 1945. After the war,
Colman worked for the 3rd US Army Constabulary in Heidelberg, Germany, as motion picture director,
cameraman and public relations officer until 1952, when he emigrated to the United States. It was also the
great American flying saucer wave of 1952 which "alerted my military eye," as Colman used to say, and so
he began collecting UFO reports and photos. Although he was an American citizen for many years,
Colman's military rank was officially recognized by the post-communist Hungarian government, which gave
him a retroactive promotion to full colonel. He was also a member of the American Institute of Aeronautics
and Astronautics (AIAA).

Colman lectured at many international UFO Congresses in the US, Mexico, Brazil, Japan, Germany,
Austria, Hungary and several other European nations. He was invited by the late Lord Clancarty to speak at
the House of Lords UFO Study Group in 1980, briefed the president of Austria, Dr. Rudolph Kirchlagger
in 1983, and also lectured at the Dag Hammarjskold Auditorium in the United Nations in 1987. He worked
himself at the UN Public Information Office in the 1960's, where he was the very first to attempt to bring
the UFO issue to the United Nations. Secretary-General U Thant, was actually favorably disposed toward
the subject.

"In February of 1966, I sent a memorandum to Secretary General U Thant, indicating that the UN should
coordinate some kind of [UFO] project," Colman told me during our first recorded interview in 1979. "The
high authorities had certain prejudices about UFO people. Nevertheless, through a media liaison, the
Secretary General contacted me personally and assigned me to establish an analytical group within the
Secretariat." Unfortunately, that initiative never took off--it was opposed by the US UN Mission, and
Colman maintained that eventually it cost him his UN job. Undaunted, he formed ICUFON and went on
writing memoranda addressed to the United Nations, the White House, members of Congress, and anybody
who would listen.

Occasionally, some did. "The magazine presents some interesting concepts concerning the existence of
extraterrestrial concepts," wrote Col. Edwin Patterson, Ass. Dean of the US Military Academy in West
Point, thanking Colman for a copy of his detailed military analysis of the famous October 1973 UFO flap
across North America, published in a special issue of 'Official UFO' magazine in 1975. And when Colman
sent Prof. Hermann Oberth, the German inventor of rocketry, the draft of his "International Space Security
Pact--Space Law" in 1966, regulating how mankind should deal with 'Homo Cosmicus' in a legal global
way, Prof. Oberth wrote him: "Your proposals seem me the only logical we can do in this situation in the
case that UFO's are strange spaceships indeed. By the way, I think the first step will be made by the
Uranides." The term 'Uranides' was coined by Oberth from the Greek word Ouranos for sky, thus Sky
people, while von Keviczky coined the Latin term 'Homo Cosmicus' (Cosmic Man).

Nor was Colman at all shy in confronting anyone about his views. Colman was a prominent member of the
Hungarian-American community and was once part of a delegation that attended a briefing organized by the
Reagan White House at the adjacent Old Executive House. When the president's science advisor George
Keyworth was explaining the SDI research program, Colman pointed out with that roaring voice he had that
'star wars' was really aimed against the galactic forces and not the Soviets. The science advisor was not
pleased. On another occasion he confronted his fellow Hungarian-American, Dr. Edward Teller, the
inventor of the H bomb.

Colman's thesis took a boost a few years ago when President Reagan made a number of cryptic speeches
about how the USA and USSR would unite "if we were facing an alien threat from outside this world."
Colman dodged every American president from Richard Nixon to Bill Clinton with various UFO
memoranda. Regardless of what one thinks about his ufological ideas, one had to admire the man. He kept
in excellent physical and mental health with more energy and dedication than most ufologists I know
(including myself), tirelessly pursuing his UFO crusade into his late 80's. He was still contributing to the
Hungarian UFO magazine just a few weeks before prostate cancer finally sent him to the hospital. Perhaps
now that he has crossed to the other side he has finally learned the truth about UFOs. We will miss him, but
his legacy will continue in his memoranda and in the large ICUFON Archives and Photo Collection he
amassed during 45 years of UFO research.

Those who wish to send condolences to his widow Yolanda, can do it through me: Antonio Huneeus, P.O.
Box 1989, New York, NY 10159-1989. E-mail: huneeus@idt.net