 It is with great
sadness that we bring you the news that Hans Grasholm, President of the UFO Yukon Research
Society and his wife Maria passed away in March 2005. Our thoughts are with his family at
this time.
I first met Hans when he filed a UFO report in November 1999. Actually both he and his
wife saw a bright shimmering light during daylight in the vicinity of Golden Horn. Shortly
after the Yukon UFO Conference in Oct 2000 he was one of the enthusiastic founding members
that formed the UFO Yukon Research Society that was registered as a non-profit
organization in January 2001. In those days we met in the Whitehorse Public Library once
per month in a small square windowless meeting room. After a few such meetings Hans made a
gracious offer to hold the meetings in his home at 43 Alsek Road in Riverdale, a home that
he and Maria designed and built by themselves in 1969. It was a definite improvement over
the basic library facilities and I have very fond memories of the meetings sitting around
the large expandable table that is normally reserved for family dinners and get-togethers
with his two children and five grandchildren that live in Whitehorse. They were very much
family people and relatives from afar would often visit as well. I had the good fortune of
attending one of their traditional Danish dinners that they held every second Saturday. We
drank schnapps and beer, ate Maria's homemade pumpernickel bread with pickled herrings,
lots of cold cuts and we sat around for hours and chatted, and for sure some of the
conversation was about UFOs.
In February 2001 I was offered a job in Burnaby, British Columbia. It was a terrific
career opportunity and I was so glad that Hans took over the functions of the society. He
certainly had the dedication, enthusiasm hospitality, for "the cause". The
Society continued on; Hans had a second phone line installed to take UFO calls, monthly
meetings continued to be held at Hans' place which I would attend by teleconference. The
group organized another successful UFO conference in 2002 and documented many interesting
cases over the past 4 years. I will always be thankful to Hans for that. He performed a
commendable job.
About a year or so ago Maria was diagnosed with cancer. With some treatment they made the
most of the summer in 2004. They traveled to visit relatives as they often do but added a
special trip at the end of the summer. They spent the entire month of September together
in Hawaii; they had never been there before. In the fall Maria's condition steadily became
worse and this of course weighed heavily on Hans. Sadly, Maria passed away on March 5,
2005. Hans, as far as I know was a healthy man, he would often go swimming laps in the
morning. So it was a great shock to everyone that on March 19 Hans passed away of a heart
attack. The pamphlet at Han's memorial was titled: "In Loving Memory, Hans Jorgan
Grasholm, who missed Maria so much - he died of a Broken Heart. … and they are
together again."
Hans' children acknowledged their father's passion for answers about the unknown. The
pamphlet's background was imprinted with the mysterious Nazca Lines from South America.
Also, an insert had a scripture of Eziekiel 4-21 that many refer to as a biblical account
of a UFO sighting (See Hans' article in the Summer 2003 issue of the UFOBC Quarterly).
I would like to finish off this article with why Hans had such an interest in this
subject. Here are some of his experiences:
"I use to be a hard-core realist. If things did not fit into
normal set laws or there was no solid proof, they did not exist. So it was with God and
Flying Saucers.
Then, in 1975, I saw the TV show "Chariots of the Gods" by Erich von Daniken.
Whether all or just some of the statement in that show were true is not the point, but
that TV show opened my eyes; it explained in my mind both God and flying saucers. I became
so enthralled with UFOs that I had to buy every magazine and book about the subject. To my
surprise, as I learned about flying saucers, I realized that I had already had three
classical sightings of UFO's.
The first two sightings were as a boy in Denmark during World War II (see article at
right). One was a huge ball that literally rolled across the heavens above me, the second
was a saucer shaped object that had a red glow. Although the ball (mothership) scared me,
I had no conception as a seven year old boy, that what I was seeing were flying ships with
possible intelligent beings inside them.
My third sighting was around 1966 here in the Yukon with my wife as a witness. We were
driving the Alaska Hwy. About 5 km south of Whitehorse, going toward town when my wife
asked "is that a balloon hanging over the trees to the left of the highway up
ahead?" We had watched it for a minute, and although we had moved about 1.5 km closer
to the object, it had hardly grown in size, so it had to be some distance from us. At that
point from being perfectly stationary above the trees, it suddenly disappeared out toward
the horizon and within a second was out of sight. Since I did not believe in UFOs at the
time, I surmised that someone had shot a hole in the 'balloon' and it had collapsed in
such a way that it looked like flying into the horizon away from us. Also, the fact that
there were no sonic boom convinced me that it had to be a balloon, no object could move
that fast and not make a sound.
I must confess, 'I lied to myself.' Being the pi-headed realist I was, 'UFO's did not
exist', so I purposely dismissed two other observations in this sighting which I would not
explain to myself, the observations that told me that "this is not a balloon".
I was 41 years of age when Eric von Daniken removed my blindfolds. It is one thing to be
ignorant, but telling myself that things don't exist just because I can't explain them;
that is plain stupidity. So, am I still a realist today? You bet I am. I realize how
little I know, and the more I learn, the more questions I can ask. The universe is still
full of mysteries, and wondering about them is what keeps me young."
In closing I know that Hans and
Maria are together again and I would like to say something to Hans. Hans, I know you now
have answers to your (our) many questions you had during your time on this world. If you
can, please help us make the world more open to these mysteries, I know that you agree
that the world would be a much better place for it.
On behalf of the members of the UFO Yukon Research Society and UFOBC, we miss you Hans!
But you are always with us.
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Boy sees Foo-Fighters as Germany Invades Denmark
It was 1940 when 6-year-old Hans Grasholm was walking home from
school in Copenhagen. He was mesmerized by the sight of German aircraft filling the sky.
"It may have even been the first day of the invasion " remarked Hans, which
would put the date on April 9, 1940.
Suddenly Hans heard the pitch of one of the planes change as if it was doing an evasive
maneuver. Ahead of the airplane was a giant yellow ball, about the size of the full moon,
"rolling" right to left perpendicular to the travel of the German fighter. The
object had small yellow leaf-like objects covering its entire surface.
The object had no vapour trial or smoke. And it was "rolling" counterclockwise
across the sky. Hans made a careful observation that the rate of rotation was about a
third required had the object been rolling on the ground and travelling that speed. It was
travelling very fast and flew out of site into the distance in about 10 seconds. Hans
estimated that he was within 3 km of the object and it was flying very low. He had no
concept of the possibility of visitors from other worlds but he remembers thinking one
thing, "how can that thing stay up there without wings?". He was waiting for it
to fall. "If the thing ever falls it will cause a lot of damage to the town" he
thought.
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Above: Drawing by Hans Grasholm of UFO that he saw
in 1940 in Denmark. Notes by Martin Jasek |
In about 1943 or 1944
Hans had his second UFO sighting. Shortly after getting home from school he witnessed an
oval dark-red light with fuzzy edges that remained motionless in the sky for about 2
minutes. It was overcast and during daytime. Hans was familiar with search lights and this
did not at all look like one. He stood there watching it when it slowly started to move
but it kept the same shape. Had it been a search light it would had changed shape due the
shape of the clouds. The light eventually stopped and he watched it for another half a
minute before going into the house. (* the term Foo-Fighter was first termed in WWII when
"both sides" reported seeing strange craft following their war planes, each
thinking it was the other side's secret weapon, predating the terms flying saucer and
UFO).
His last published work was "Did Aliens bring Religion to Earth?"
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