Alexander Imich

Life and Background

Alexander Herbert Imich (February 4, 1903 – June 8, 2014) was a Polish-American chemist, parapsychologist, zoologist, and paranormal researcher who became one of the twentieth century's most durable investigators of anomalous phenomena. Born in Poland in the twilight of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, Imich lived through two world wars and the Cold War, becoming an unlikely bridge between pre-WWII European scholarship and postwar American ufology.

At age 15, Imich enrolled in the Polish Army during the Polish-Soviet War (ca. 1918), seeing combat as the nation consolidated independence. Decades later, during World War II, he and his wife Wela were forcibly interned in a Soviet labor camp near Białystok after refusing to accept Soviet citizenship. Both survived and eventually emigrated to the United States in 1951, where Imich began his long career investigating the paranormal.

Research and the Anomalous Phenomena Research Center

Imich held a PhD in chemistry and maintained a disciplined, systematically minded approach to paranormal investigation—rare in a field often dominated by enthusiasts and credulous believers. In 1995, he edited and published Incredible Tales of the Paranormal, a compendium distributed by Bramble Books that synthesized accounts of UFO sightings, poltergeists, and other unexplained phenomena from his decades of case files. The book reflected his conviction that paranormal events, if documented rigorously, could eventually convince mainstream science of their reality.

In 1999, at age 96, Imich founded the Anomalous Phenomena Research Center in New York City, serving as its president. The center became a nexus for serious paranormal research during the pre-internet and early-internet era, operating at a time when most academic institutions regarded the field as disreputable. The center's stated mission was to produce what Imich termed "The Crucial Demonstration"—a definitive, reproducible proof of paranormal phenomena that would compel recognition from the scientific establishment. Though this goal remained elusive, the center's archives and case files documented thousands of witness accounts, including UAP sightings, abduction reports, and poltergeist phenomena.

Imich maintained correspondence with leading paranormal researchers and remained intellectually engaged well into his second century. His research interests spanned the full spectrum of anomalies: UFO encounters, parapsychology, cryptozoology, and consciousness studies. Unlike some ufologists who became wedded to a single hypothesis (alien visitation, terrestrial conspiracy, or psychological projection), Imich maintained scholarly agnosticism, cataloging phenomena across multiple frameworks and encouraging peer review of findings.

Longevity and Public Recognition

Imich achieved unexpected fame late in life as a longevity record-holder. In April 2014, following the death of 111-year-old Arturo Licata of Italy, Imich was certified by Guinness World Records as the world's oldest living man. The media attention that followed—appearing in major outlets as the planet's oldest person—exposed a new audience to his career in paranormal research. For approximately six weeks before his death on June 8, 2014 (at 111 years and 124 days), Imich became a minor celebrity, often photographed for human-interest pieces that touched on his century-spanning life but rarely explored his scholarly work in depth.

Legacy and Archives

In 2012, recognizing his advancing age, Imich began transferring the Anomalous Phenomena Research Center's archives to the University of Manitoba Department of Archives and Special Collections. This transfer preserved decades of research materials, case files, correspondence, and publications. The collection is now accessible to scholars, ensuring that Imich's systematic documentation of paranormal reports will inform future research.

Imich's credibility rests on several foundations: a legitimate chemistry PhD and academic background; the institutional anchoring of his research center; rigorous case documentation; peer-reviewed publications; and the preservation of his archives in a recognized university repository. He represents a relatively rare category in ufology—the scientifically trained, long-committed researcher who avoided sensationalism without lapsing into cynical dismissiveness. His work demonstrated that serious investigation of anomalous phenomena need not abandon empirical method or professional restraint.