Bill McNeff
by
Torre Nelson
April 26, 2024
Mutual UFO Network (MUFON) members have many different characteristics. They come from all walks of life, they include all ethnic backgrounds, they have many different education levels, and their social skills vary widely. But they all have a common trait – an almost insatiable curiosity to find an explanation for unusual experiences they and\or others have had. These people do not simply shrug off an unusual experience as a hallucination or a dream, they are driven to find an explanation. They know their experience was real and they have many questions that they want answered. “I know what I saw” is a common phrase among people that have had an experience and have been unable to fit it into the generally accepted laws of today’s physics. MUFON is an organization created by those seeking to find an explanation for these experiences. Its members are constantly looking for scientific evidence to explain the vast and varied experiences many have had. William “Bill” McNeff is one of these people who have joined MUFON in his quest to find a rational explanation for these experiences.
On a beautiful sunny June day in 1951, Bill was helping on his uncle’s farm located in Nance County, Nebraska. It was the middle of the afternoon and there were no clouds in the sky. Bill was at one end of the field stacking hay on a haystack and his uncle was on the other end of the field driving the tractor with a hay sweep. As he put it, “For no reason at all” Bill was compelled to look straight up into the sky above him. He saw a round black object about the size of a “bb” (for those familiar with bb guns) or a 1/8” ball bearing held at arm’s length. The object was headed south at “airplane speed.” As Bill watched the object, it got fuzzy and fuzzier and then faded to nothing – it looked much like the transporter in Star Trek. The sighting lasted only a few seconds. Bill was unable to determine the distance to the object as there was no reference point in the clear sky. The object made no noise and left no vapor trail or any evidence of propulsion. Bill believed that he was sub-consciously influenced to look up at the object. Bill had no explanation for what he saw but he believed it must have been extra-terrestrial. In late August that same year, Bill’s brother and two sisters had their own sightings. While playing in their front yard of their farmhouse, Bill’s brother, age 5, described a cylinder-shaped craft that was half black and half white. Bill’s two sisters, ages 7 and 10, saw another object which they described as being like a boat or canoe that was half black and half white. The objects were rotating horizontally in the air while hovering. The family had the two sisters sketch what they had seen. The two sketches were similar, both were cylinders with three humps. The only differences were that the older sister colored hers half black and half white while the younger sister did not use colors and the younger sister exaggerated the humps. Bill wrote down the details and sent a letter and the sketches to the Air Force but did not get a response. He later looked through the government’s Project Blue Book files but did not find the case. Later when Bill’s two sisters were in their early 20’s, Bill again asked them to draw sketches and again the sketches were eerily similar. Bill would love to know the details of what each of them actually saw.
Ever since private pilot and businessman, Kenneth Arnold, spotted nine flying disc-shaped objects near Mt. Ranier, Washington, on June 24th, 1947, the term “flying saucers” has been used extensively in newspapers and radios across the country to describe sightings similar to Bill’s. On Tuesday, July 8th, 1947, the local newspaper in Roswell, New Mexico, The Roswell Daily Record, published an article with the headline “RAAF Captures Flying Saucer on Ranch in Roswell Region.” Although the Air Force recanted the story the next day, the interest in UFOs swept the country and reported sightings proliferated. Bill was aware of these UFO events but it was his sighting and his sibling’s sightings that really triggered his desire to determine exactly what they saw and sparked his interest in UFOs. This interest manifested itself in Bill’s many contributions to MUFON over years.
Bill was born in Nebraska in 1933 and grew up on a farm during years of drought and depression. After graduating from high school in 1950, Bill went to a small church college in York, Nebraska. Bill intended to get a Pre-Ministry degree but after 2 years of pre-ministry courses, he changed his major to pre-med. After 1.5 years of pre-med courses, the college closed down and Bill was left without his degree. Bill then realized that he could not immediately afford to resume his medical school studies. At this juncture in his life, Bill developed an interest in electronics and decided to pursue it. He took a good mail order electronics course which he really enjoyed. He even built a small broadcast station and broadcast around the neighborhood for about an hour – he limited it to an hour because he didn’t want the FCC to come after him. At that time, men of military age were subject to the Draft. They could wait for a likely chance of being drafted by a lottery, which could be to a branch of military service for up to 4 years, depending on the branch, or they could volunteer for the Army for a two-year term. Bill decided to volunteer for the Draft and pursue electronics in the army, not realizing that the army would not guarantee an electronics position. Bill was inducted into the Army in March 1955. However, due to his solid aptitude test scores (and maybe a little luck), Bill was assigned to electronics technician school. After completing this electronics training, he was cleared for “Top Secret”, and in March 1956 he was sent to Turkey where he worked in Electronic Counter Measures. In March 1957 Bill was given an honorable discharge from the Army, with a letter of commendation, his military obligation fulfilled. After completing his stint in the Army, Bill returned to Nebraska. He went back to college and with his previous college work, he was able to graduate in 3 years from the University of Nebraska with a Bachelor of Science degree in Electrical Engineering (BSEE). After graduation in the spring of 1960, Bill was immediately hired by Remington Rand, Inc., as an Electrical Engineer, and moved to St. Paul, Minnesota. At that time Remington Rand, Inc. was a subdivision of Sperry Rand (later shortened to Sperry) and was one of the largest, if not the largest, computer manufacturers in the United States. Bill worked at Remington Rand for 9 years. In 1969, Bill joined Control Data Corporation (CDC), a mainframe and super computer company led by computer legend Seymour Cray. Bill Joined the Tucson, Arizona, computer terminal factory as a Production Engineer. He worked at CDC until the Tucson facility was closed in 1971. He was then transferred back to Minnesota and began work as a Design Engineer at the CDC facility in Arden Hills. It was at Control Data Corporation that Bill met another engineer, Bob Schultz, and they became life-long friends. Bill kept inviting Bob to attend MUFON meetings and Bob eventually did after he retired in 1989. CDC began to shrink its work force in the spring of 1989 when the first wave of layoffs came. Bill was caught in the second wave of layoffs in the summer of 1989, but because he had been an employee for more than 15 years, his layoff was also termed a “retirement”. But at 56 years of age, Bill was not ready for retirement, and he found work as an electrical engineer at the Special Purpose Processor Design Group (SPPDG) under the Mayo Foundation at Rochester, MN.
Because of his interest in UFOs, Bill joined the National Investigations Committee on Aerial Phenomenon (NICAP) while he was in college. Per Wikipedia, NICAP was founded October 24th, 1956, by inventor Thomas Townsend Brown. Several prominent men were members of NICAP including Donald Keyhoe, Maj USMC (Ret.), RADM Delmer S. Fahrney USN (Ret.), former chief of the Navy’s guided missile program, VADM Roscoe H. Hillenkoetter USN (Ret.), Head of Central Intelligence and 1st Director of the Central Intelligence Agency, and Gen. Albert Coady Wedemeyer USA (Ret.). NICAP’s first goal was to complete thorough investigations of UFO reports. In the late 1950’s NICAP had over 5,000 members. Bill remained a member of NICAP until it discontinued its local and state affiliate groups in 1969. NICAP’s demise was believed to be a combination of poor financial leadership and the belief that it had been infiltrated and undermined by the CIA.
Bill joined a UFO organization call the “Midwest UFO Network” in late 1969. This was an organization established on May 31, 1969, in Quincy, Illinois, by University of Wisconsin-Oshkosh Associate Chemistry Professor Allen R. Utke; Quality Control Manager for Motorola, Walter H Andrus; Aerospace Engineer for McDonald Douglas, John Schussler; and others. About 10 years ago, one of the founders, John Schussler, stated that the Midwest UFO organization was started because 3-4 people and their wives had a sighting in Texas. Allen R. Utke was the Director during Midwest UFO Network’s first year and was followed by Walter Andrus in 1970. The Midwest UFO Network grew rapidly under Walt Andrus’ leadership and, in 1973, MN MUFON’s founder, Lou Masonic, called Walt to offer him the Name “Mutual UFO Network” to replace the demographically restricted “Midwest UFO Network” name. MN MUFON then became an official state affiliate of Walt’s newly renamed organization. Today the National Organization of MUFON is headquartered in Cincinnati, Ohio, has over 4,000 members with chapters in every state, and has over 500 field investigators. Currently esteemed aerospace engineer John Schussler is still a writing contributor for the MUFON Journal. Bill McNeff has been a MUFON member since 1969 and became a lifetime member by 2012.
After returning to Minnesota from Tucson and before joining MUFON, Bill completed 6 of his own UFO investigations – 4 occurred in Nebraska, 1 in Minnesota and 1 in Wisconsin. After joining Minnesota MUFON, Bill completed investigations into over 320 cases, most in Minnesota. Most cases Bill investigated were simply sightings of craft but over 30 cases involved sightings of creatures.
One case involved friendly creatures whose craft landed in the side yard of a man named Joe Simonton in 1961. As the door opened to the craft, Joe saw a human looking man. The man had a penetrating gaze that Joe said he felt the man could see all the way into his soul but otherwise seemed harmless. The man held two containers and made motions like drinking from a cup. Joe assumed they wanted water, so he went into the house, filled the containers and took them back to the craft. As Joe handed the man the containers of water, he peered into the ship and saw two other men. One was sitting at a console with three display panels and the other man seemed to be making and flipping pancakes on a stove. Joe made motions like he wanted to eat something, so the man gave him 4 or 5 of these pancakes. Then the craft’s door closed and the craft floated up about 60 feet before turning at a 45 degree angle and taking off – it was out of sight in 10 seconds. Joe took one bite of the pancake but it tasted like cardboard so Joe didn’t eat any more. Joe reported this incident and soon the Air Force sent J. Allen Hynek to investigate. When Hynek spoke to the press after interviewing Simonton, he said he had no reason to believe that Joe was lying. The Air Force asked Joe for one of the pancakes, and Joe gave them one. The Air Force analyzed it and sent Joe a copy of the analysis; of interest is that their test for protein was negative!
When originally hired by the Air Force, Hynek was a die-hard skeptic, but after investigating so many cases that he could not explain, he eventually came to believe that many of these cases were real. He eventually admitted that he believed Joe’s case was real.
Some cases Bill investigated are just plain unsettling. Take, for example, the case involving a family in the Midway area of St. Paul in 1987. Around 12:30 a.m., a mother heard her young son, age 4, and someone else running around downstairs, as if playing. She assumed the other person was her young daughter. She hollered for both of them to go back to bed – strangely, she did not get up and went quickly back to sleep. About a half hour later, she awoke to the sounds of someone trying to play a ukelele. Her son’s room was right across the hall from her bedroom on the upper level. When she went to investigate, her son was in his bed with his older brother’s ukulele. She found this strange as earlier in the evening she had put the ukelele up out of reach on a shelf above the refrigerator. However, she found that a stool had been placed on a chair in front of the refrigerator. But even with the stool and the chair, her son would not have been able to reach the ukelele. When she asked her son how he had gotten the ukelele, her son responded that his friend Bug Eye had gotten it for him. She had thought Bug Eye was someone her son had made up. Strangely, the kitchen door to the back yard was also wide open. She remained puzzled by how her son had gotten the ukelele and why the kitchen door had been open. She closed and locked the kitchen door and took her son back to bed with her. Later in the middle of the night they heard a bang above the house and the little boy said, “He’s back.” She asked him who was back and he boy said, “Bug Eye.” The next day her son was complaining about his ears hurting so she took him to the doctor. The doctor didn’t think it was too serious and sent them home. A few days later, she was telling a friend about the incident and her friend wondered if it might be an alien abduction experience. Her friend gave her Whitley Strieber’s book titled “Communion” to read and she laid it on the coffee table. Later her son saw the book on the table, pointed at the picture of a grey alien on the cover and said “That is my friend Bug Eye.” Bill verified that there was no way for the little boy to get the ukulele, and considers this and the rest of the evidence in this case to make a strong case that this was an extraterrestrial visit.
One of the most interesting and frightening cases has to be the “Reptilian” case in 2017. This event occurred in a Minnetonka, Minnesota, two-story townhome with a downstairs utility room off the garage. It was a normal night with a woman and her husband sleeping in their bedroom and two young girls asleep in their bedroom across the hall. At approximately 12:30 at night, the woman woke to find herself clad only in her light nightgown in the home’s utility room on the lower level near the garage. In the room with her was a terrifying creature resembling a humanoid with reptilian features. She was under partial control by the creature but she could move around a little and she could scream. She did try to open the door but it was apparently locked – this was unusual as when locked the door allows exiting but not entering. Although she screamed periodically, her husband did not wake up. She was terrified but got the impression that the reptilian was more interested in her husband than herself. At 4:30 in the morning, her husband woke up and heard her scream. He found her in the utility room, alone. She had marks on her body including scratches and an equilateral triangle on her shoulder. Her children had heard her scream, but were afraid to get out of bed. Interestingly, all the batteries in the garage were completely drained. Also, there was a strange circle in the grass in their back yard. This is the only “Reptilian” case that Bill knew of in Minnesota.
Bill joined MUFON in 1986 and has served MUFON in many different capacities. A year after Bill joined MUFON, State Director Bob Enberg was called away to North Dakota for work. Bill graciously stepped in to replace Bob as State Director. Meetings prior to Bill’s reign as State Director were sporadic and intermittent; however, Bill used the MN MUFON member mailing list to invite members to meetings that were consistently held monthly. MUFON has been meeting monthly ever since. During his tenure, Bill also began publishing a regular group newsletter called the MN MUFON Journal. Bill’s contributions came to a temporary halt in the summer of 1993 when Bill and his family moved to South Dakota. Upon his departure, Bill turned over the MN MUFON State Directorship to local science teacher, Dick Moss. Fortunately for the MUFON family, Bill returned after moving back to Minnesota in November of 1995. After returning to Minnesota, Bill once again became active in MUFON.
During his tenure with MUFON, Bill has held other leadership positions as well. Shortly after joining MUFON, Bill quickly became a mufon Certified Field Investigator. Due to his vast experience combined with his methodical and scientific approach to his investigations, he eventually became MN MUFON’s chief investigator and, as previously state, has now processed over 320 cases for MN MUFON and the national MUFON organization. In addition to being a past State Director and chief investigator, Bill also a filled a term as Assistant State Director when it was needed. Bill is currently a member of the MUFON Experiencer Resource Team that helps people with difficult experiences by providing someone they can talk to in order to obtain comfort, counseling and information (such as the name of a hypnotherapist). Only veteran researchers are allowed to provide this type of help to new experiencers.
Recently during the October 2023 MUFON monthly meeting, Bill was presented with MUFON’s Lifetime Achievement Award (a video was modified to celebrate – search “Bill McNeff 70 years of Contributions” on Youtube.com to find it). The award was presented by the national MUFON organization. The award was richly deserved as Bill has spent over 70 years researching UFO phenomenon with almost 40 years of that research done while he was a member of MUFON.
Bill’s dedication and commitment to investigating UFO reports is greatly appreciated. He has been one of, if not the biggest, contributor to investigative UFO research for MN MUFON in its history. His leadership has given MN MUFON direction and impetus for many years. His contributions cannot be overstated. MN MUFON and the national MUFON organization greatly appreciate all of his many years of service dedicated to UFO investigations and to his enthusiasm and leadership. Thank you, Bill!