| As one of the founding members of MUFON in 1969, Walter H. Andrus,
Jr. has been the International Director of the Mutual UFO Network, Inc.
since 1970, succeeding Dr. Allen R. Utke. He has served on the staff of
SKYLOOK and the MUFON UFO JOURNAL, starting in 1968. Walt is presently
the Editor in Chief. He has been Editor or Coeditor of the annual MUFON
International UFO Symposium Proceedings since 1972.
Born in Des Moines, Iowa (1920), Mr. Andrus is a graduate of Roosevelt
High School (1938) and graduated from the Central Technical Institute
in Kansas City, Mo. (1940). He is a graduate of the U. S. Navy Electronics
Technician Program during World War II and taught in both of the above
schools. Walt was formerly employed by Mid-Continent Airlines as a station
manager in Quincy, Illinois. From 1949 to 1975, Mr. Andrus was employed
by Motorola, Inc. in successive capacities as Assistant Plant Manager.
Manager of Quality Control and Operations Manager in their Quincy, Illinois
facility. In 1975, he transferred to the Seguin, Texas plant as a Production
Manager. After a tenure of nearly 34 years with Motorola, Walt retired
at the end of 1982 to
devote full time to the management of the Mutual UFO Network.
The MUFON administrative offices were moved from Quincy, Illinois to
Seguin, Texas in July 1975 where MUFON became a Texas nonprofit corporation
and an I.R.S. tax exempt organization. Walt and Jeanne's son, Donald and
daughter-in-law, Mary Lynn, now live in San Antonio, Texas. Walt and his
wife are the proud grandparents of two lovely granddaughters, Chelsea
Guillen and Natalie Andrus, and two great-grandsons, Derek N. and Miles
H. Guillen, who live in Forest Park, Illinois.
Mr. Andrus has been interested in the UFO phenomenon since August 15,
1948, when he, his wife and son had a daylight sighting of four UFOs flying
in formation over downtown Phoenix, Arizona. An amateur radio operator
since 1939, Walt's present call letters are W5VRN. He obtained a private
pilot's license in 1947. In addition to presenting slide-illustrated lectures
in the U.S.A., Australia, Belgium, Brazil, Canada, England, Italy and
Mexico, he has appeared on national television numerous times, including
Oprah Winfrey and Larry King.
Walt was a member of the Board of Directors of the joint USA-CIS Aerial
Anomaly Federation. He was also on the Board of Directors for the influential
UFO Research Coalition (URC), composed of Center for UFO Studies (CUFOS),
Fund for UFO Research (FUFOR), and Mutual UFO Network (MUFON), organized
in 1994.
Mr. Andrus retired as International Director of MUFON on July 16, 2000
after 30 years of service in this intriguing position. He was succeeded
by John F. Schuessler of Littleton, Colorado.
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