Joe Nickell, paranormal investigator, passed away on March 4th. I wasn’t aware of this until the NYT ran a very respectful and lengthy obit today.
Working for the Committee for Skeptical Inquiry, a program run by the nonprofit group Center for Inquiry, and as a columnist for Skeptical Inquirer, the organization’s magazine, Mr. Nickell investigated ghosts, poltergeist activity, apparitions, the Loch Ness monster, crop circles and multiple reappearances of Jesus, including one on a tortilla.
“Some of it is like satire,” Mr. Nickell told The New York Times in 1997, “almost like it’s reached a comic level.”
Back in the day when I read SI, Mr. Nickell’s articles were always a high point. He was one of the greats, right up there with Martin Gardner and James Randi, and his passing leaves a hole in the world.
(The only reason I stopped reading SI was that I just didn’t have time to read it. Nothing else, I just couldn’t keep up with that and everything else, too.)
The paper of record also ran a long, respectful, and very well illustrated obit for Robert E. McGinnis. (Previously.)