Jim
Dilettoso was born in Virginia, raised in Connecticut,
and moved to Arizona in 1976.
Dilettoso
was a member of the Aerial
Phenomenon Research Organization, a contemporary
of NICAP,
before MUFON
was organized to fill the vacuum that existed when NICAP
was infiltrated and dismantled. He served as director
of special projects from 1978 - 1982. APRO
was founded by Jim
and Coral Lorenzen out of Tucson in 1952
and operated until 1988. The founders were deeply in the
camp that maintained that the UFO represented a threat
to humanity. Among the technical consultants was perhaps
the best pure scientific mind the UFO field has ever had
at its disposal, Dr
James E. McDonald, an atmospheric physicist
at the University of Arizona.
It
was at APRO
that Dilettoso met and began a long-standing relationship
with Wendelle
C. Stevens, a former USAF fighter pilot
and intelligence officer who eventually would amass one
of the largest libraries of UFO photographs and case studies
in private hands.
When
Stevens came into the possession of a series of remarkable
photographs taken in Switzerland by a one-armed farmer
named Billy
Meier, he was initially stunned at the
clarity of the images and determined to launch an investigation
into the origin of the images. Stevens hired corporate
security consultant Lee Elders and Tom Welsh to accompany
him to Switzerland to investigate the scene of the alleged
contacts. Dilettoso provided that effort with a variety
of support, arranging for the analysis of both the photographs,
the audio recordings and the pieces of material Meier
claimed his contacts – who claimed they were from
the Pleiades star system – provided for analysis.
It
was Jim Dilettoso who arranged to have the mysterious
material analyzed by Marcel Vogel of IBM,
who concluded that there were various anomalies in the
structure of the material that would indicate that the
material was indeed extraterrestrial.
In
the course of 36 years, Dilettoso has been both lauded
and reviled for his work in the field and the appearance
at a MUFON
meeting represents something of a denouement, concluding
one of the most acrimonious ideological rifts in the history
of UFO studies in Arizona. While the focus of attention
has been on a few specific cases, few realize the experience
behind the public persona.
Jim
Dilettoso is one of the best known figures in UFO research.
For over thirty years, he has
been recognized as one of the leading analysts of UFO
Pictures and Video. He has appeared on many
TV broadcasts, including Sightings,
Discovery, A&E,
UFO Hunters, MTV,
CNN. He is known in
the UFO community as an innovative researcher and effective
communicator. Never without controversy, his work on the
Billy
Meier case, the Phoenix
Lights, and Mexico
City UFOs have helped raise the visibility
of UFOs into the mainstream. In his other life, at Village
Labs, Jim worked in Image Processing, Architecture, Agriculture,
and Sonochemistry. He has worked with Marcel Vogel, Wendelle
Stevens, NASA-NIAC, Michael Bozarth, ASU,
FEMA and the Moody Blues.
Jim
Dilettoso has over 100 projects and 20 years experience
in CAD engineering and communications installation. He
was one of the early pioneers
in Computer Aided Design systems with experience in systems
design and application engineering. He was
a founder of the Arizona State University Computer Institute
and served as its CAD and AI Director from 1984 to 1989.
While in that post, he also served as the NASA Industrial
Application Center Technology Director. Jim currently
hosts news segments on Discovery
Channel, Fox Network,
MTV and A&E
from his Village Labs (no longer active), a 21st century
lab that investigates all things new under the Sun.
Sources:
http://www.coasttocoastam.com/guest/dilettoso-jim/6705
http://files.meetup.com/435657/Phoenix%20UFO%20Group%2011-27-10.pdf
http://www.examiner.com/ufo-in-phoenix/jim-dilettoso-to-speak-at-phoenix-mufon
