Latest news with #Ginna
Boston Globe
20-03-2025
- Science
- Boston Globe
Robert E. Ginna Jr., whose article bolstered UFO claims, dies at 99
Advertisement To the general public, though, he was perhaps best known for an article he wrote with H.B. Darrach Jr. for the April 7, 1952, issue of Life magazine. The cover featured an alluring photograph of Marilyn Monroe under the headline 'There Is a Case for Interplanetary Saucers.' Get Starting Point A guide through the most important stories of the morning, delivered Monday through Friday. Enter Email Sign Up To Mr. Ginna's eternal dismay, the article made him a target for UFO buffs and kooks. Headlined 'Have We Visitors From Space?' it examined 10 reports of unidentified flying object sightings, followed by an unequivocal assessment from German rocket expert Walther Riedel: 'I am completely convinced that they have an out-of-world basis.' While reports of UFOs in the late 1940s were often trivialized, Phillip J. Hutchison and Herbert J. Strentz wrote in American Journalism in 2019: "By the early 1950s, however, more substantial human-interest features embraced the idea that U.F.O. reports might correspond to extraterrestrial Earth visitors. A widely cited April 7, 1952, Life magazine feature titled 'Have We Visitors From Space?' represents one of the most influential examples of the latter trend." Captain Edward J. Ruppelt, who led the Air Force's internal UFO investigation, Project Blue Book, wrote in 'The Report on Unidentified Flying Objects' in 1956 that 'the Life article undoubtedly threw a harder punch at the American public than any other UFO article ever written.' Other reporters had visited the Air Technical Intelligence Center (now the National Air and Space Intelligence Center), in Dayton, Ohio, he wrote, but 'for some reason the name LIFE, the prospects of a feature story, and the feeling that this Bob Ginna was going to ask questions caused sweat to flow at ATIC.' Advertisement "Life didn't say that the U.F.O.s were from outer space; it just said maybe," he added. "But to back up this 'maybe,' it had quotes from some famous people," including Riedel. (In 2024, a congressionally mandated Pentagon report concluded that there was no evidence that any UFO sightings represented alien visits.) Throughout his career, Mr. Ginna 'carved his own path,' Jeremy Gerard, a critic, biographer and former reporter for The New York Times, said in an email. He "quoted Yeats and O'Casey" and "valued his correspondences with many of the great writers of his time," Gerard noted, and he wasn't afraid to go his own way, "leaving People when its direction didn't please him, devoting himself to teaching when the literary world was changing at warp speed, worshipping at the altar of the written word." Robert Emmett Ginna Jr. was born on Dec. 3, 1925, in Brooklyn. He was named for Irish patriot Robert Emmet, as was his father, an electrical engineer who became the chair of Rochester Gas and Electric. His mother, Margaret (McCall) Ginna, was the daughter of Irish immigrants. In addition to his son, Peter, an editor and writer, he is survived by his daughter, Mary Frances Williams Ginna; a sister, Margretta Michie; two grandchildren; and a great-grandson. His wife, Margaret (Williams) Ginna, died in 2004. His first marriage, to Patricia Ellis, ended in divorce; they had no children. After his wife's death, he was the companion of journalist Gail Sheehy, who died in 2020. Advertisement After graduating from the Aquinas Institute of Rochester, he enrolled at Harvard College, but dropped out to join the Navy when he was 17 and served in the Pacific during World War II. He graduated from the University of Rochester in 1948. Mr. Ginna envisioned a career in medical research and was already working in a laboratory when, traveling in France, he was struck by what he described as an epiphany as he gazed at one of the rose windows at the cathedral in Chartres. He returned home and changed direction, earning a master's degree in art history at Harvard and working briefly as a curator of painting and sculpture at the Newark Museum of Art. Later in his 20s, Mr. Ginna was a freelance writer for the Gannett group of newspapers before joining Life in 1950. His interview of Irish dramatist Sean O'Casey for NBC would inspire him to produce a film called 'Young Cassidy' (1965), based on O'Casey's memoir. (Sean Connery was supposed to star, but opted to play James Bond instead.) Mr. Ginna also produced 'Before Winter Comes' (1969), starring David Niven, Anna Karina, John Hurt, and Israeli actor Topol, and 'Brotherly Love' (1970), starring Peter O'Toole and Susannah York. 'As a producer, Ginna may have had limitations,' Salter wrote of their Hollywood misadventures in his memoir, 'Burning the Days' (1997). 'He was scrupulously honest. He was a classicist — his interests were cultural, his knowledge large — and unequivocal in his statements and beliefs.' After working at People, where he was a founding editor in 1974, he went on to serve as editor-in-chief of Little, Brown from 1977 to 1980, his son said. There, he published 'Coma,' the first medical thriller by Cook. He then briefly returned to Time Inc., which was trying to revive Life. Beginning in 1987, he taught writing and film at Harvard University. He took his final publishing job at 80, starting an academic press at New England College, in Henniker, N.H. Advertisement When Mr. Ginna was in his early 70s, he traversed the length of Ireland, lugging a 38-pound rucksack, a journey he recounted in 'The Irish Way: A Walk Through Ireland's Past and Present' (2003). In 2016, at 90, he retired from teaching but continued to write. He left an uncompleted memoir titled 'Epiphanies.' This article originally appeared in
New York Times
20-03-2025
- Entertainment
- New York Times
Robert E. Ginna Jr., Whose Article Bolstered U.F.O. Claims, Dies at 99
Robert E. Ginna Jr., a founding editor of People magazine, a book editor and a film producer whose 1952 Life magazine article provoked a frenzy by validating the idea that flying saucers might exist and could have visited Earth from outer space, died on March 4 at his home in Sag Harbor, N.Y. His death was confirmed by his son, Peter St. John Ginna. He was 99. Mr. Ginna (pronounced gun-NAY) enjoyed a wide-ranging, eight-decade career. As the editor in chief of Little, Brown, he persuaded the acclaimed novelist James Salter to shift from screenplays to books and discovered Dr. Robin Cook as an author of thrillers. He also produced movies and was part of the team that started People as a highbrow showcase for profiles of cultural figures like Graham Greene and Vladimir Nabokov, but quit when the magazine descended into what he viewed as celebrity fluff. To the general public, though, he was perhaps best known for an article he wrote with H.B. Darrach Jr. for the April 7, 1952, issue of Life magazine. The cover featured an alluring photograph of Marilyn Monroe under the headline 'There Is a Case for Interplanetary Saucers.' To Mr. Ginna's eternal dismay, the article made him a target for U.F.O. buffs and kooks. Headlined 'Have We Visitors From Space?,' it examined 10 reports of unidentified flying object sightings, followed by an unequivocal assessment from the German rocket expert Walther Riedel: 'I am completely convinced that they have an out-of-world basis.' While reports of U.F.O.s in the late 1940s were often trivialized, Phillip J. Hutchison and Herbert J. Strentz wrote in American Journalism in 2019: 'By the early 1950s, however, more substantial human-interest features embraced the idea that U.F.O. reports might correspond to extraterrestrial Earth visitors. A widely cited April 7, 1952, Life magazine feature titled 'Have We Visitors From Space?' represents one of the most influential examples of the latter trend.' Capt. Edward J. Ruppelt, who led the Air Force's internal U.F.O. investigation, Project Blue Book, wrote in 'The Report on Unidentified Flying Objects' in 1956 that 'the Life article undoubtedly threw a harder punch at the American public than any other U.F.O. article ever written.' Other reporters had visited the Air Technical Intelligence Center (now the National Air and Space Intelligence Center), in Dayton, Ohio, he wrote, but 'for some reason the name LIFE, the prospects of a feature story, and the feeling that this Bob Ginna was going to ask questions caused sweat to flow at ATIC.' 'Life didn't say that the U.F.O.s were from outer space; it just said maybe,' he added. 'But to back up this 'maybe,' it had quotes from some famous people,' including Dr. Riedel. (In 2024, a congressionally mandated Pentagon report concluded that there was no evidence that any U.F.O. sightings represented alien visits.) Throughout his career, Mr. Ginna 'carved his own path,' Jeremy Gerard, a critic, biographer and former reporter for The New York Times, said in an email. He 'quoted Yeats and O'Casey' and 'valued his correspondences with many of the great writers of his time,' Mr. Gerard noted, and he wasn't afraid to go his own way, 'leaving People when its direction didn't please him, devoting himself to teaching when the literary world was changing at warp speed, worshiping at the altar of the written word.' Robert Emmett Ginna Jr. was born on Dec. 3, 1925, in Brooklyn. He was named for the Irish patriot Robert Emmet, as was his father, an electrical engineer who became the chairman of Rochester Gas and Electric. His mother, Margaret (McCall) Ginna, was the daughter of Irish immigrants. In addition to his son, Peter, an editor and writer, he is survived by his daughter, Mary Frances Williams Ginna; a sister, Margretta Michie; two grandchildren; and a great-grandson. His wife, Margaret (Williams) Ginna, died in 2004. His first marriage, to Patricia Ellis, ended in divorce; they had no children. After his wife's death, he was the companion of the journalist Gail Sheehy, who died in 2020. After graduating from the Aquinas Institute of Rochester, he enrolled at Harvard College, but dropped out to join the Navy when he was 17 and served in the Pacific during World War II. He graduated from the University of Rochester in 1948. Mr. Ginna envisioned a career in medical research and was already working in a laboratory when, traveling in France, he was struck by what he described as an epiphany as he gazed at one of the rose windows at the cathedral in Chartres. He returned home and changed direction, earning a master's degree in art history at Harvard and working briefly as a curator of painting and sculpture at the Newark Museum of Art. Later in his 20s, Mr. Ginna was a freelance writer for the Gannett group of newspapers before joining Life in 1950. His interview of the Irish dramatist Sean O'Casey for NBC would inspire him to produce a film called 'Young Cassidy' (1965), based on Mr. O'Casey's memoir. (Sean Connery was supposed to star, but opted to play James Bond instead.) Mr. Ginna also produced 'Before Winter Comes' (1969), starring David Niven, Anna Karina, John Hurt and the Israeli actor Topol, and 'Brotherly Love' (1970), starring Peter O'Toole and Susannah York. 'As a producer, Ginna may have had limitations,' Mr. Salter wrote of their Hollywood misadventures in his memoir, 'Burning the Days' (1997). 'He was scrupulously honest. He was a classicist — his interests were cultural, his knowledge large — and unequivocal in his statements and beliefs.' After working at People, where he was a founding editor in 1974, he went on to serve as editor in chief of Little, Brown from 1977 to 1980, his son said. There, he published 'Coma,' the first medical thriller by Dr. Cook. He then briefly returned to Time Inc., which was trying to revive Life. Beginning in 1987, he taught writing and film at Harvard University. He took his final publishing job at 80, starting an academic press at New England College, in Henniker, N.H. When Mr. Ginna was in his early 70s, he traversed the length of Ireland, lugging a 38-pound rucksack, a journey he recounted in 'The Irish Way: A Walk Through Ireland's Past and Present' (2003). In 2016, at 90, he retired from teaching but continued to write. He left an uncompleted memoir titled 'Epiphanies.'
Fox News
07-02-2025
- Entertainment
- Fox News
'Maine Cabin Masters' star Matt 'Dixie' Dix's wife Ginna Dix dead at 48
Ginna Dix, the wife of "Maine Cabin Masters" star Matt "Dixie" Dix, has died. She was 48. The Magnolia Network show announced Ginna's death in an Instagram post shared on the "Maine Cabin Masters" official account Wednesday. "We are heartbroken to announce the unexpected passing of Ginna Dix on February 1, 2025," the caption said. "Beloved wife of Dixie, God Daughter to Ryan's parents, and friend to so many. Ginna was a huge part of the Maine Cabin Masters family and will be missed tremendously. "We thank you all for your love and support, but ask that you give the Maine Cabin Masters team privacy at this time." The post included a slideshow featuring photos of Ginna captured at different moments in her life, from childhood snaps to images of her younger years with Dixie to more recent pictures of the couple with their dogs. According to an obituary published on Ginna died unexpectedly at Maine Medical Center in Portland, Maine, with her family by her side. No cause of death was provided. Ginna, who hailed from Sidney, Maine, was a nursing student at St. Anselm College in Goffstown, New Hampshire, and graduated with a Bachelor of Science in Nursing in 2000. That same year, she met Dixie, and the two tied the knot Sept. 22, 2001. Ginna and Dixie shared three children, Michael, Lindsey and Kiley. After graduating from St. Anselm College, Ginna landed her first job as a nurse at Pine Tree Camp in Rome, Maine. For many years, she worked as a registered nurse at a hospital and then a cancer care center in Maine before pursuing her master's in nursing degree at Indiana's Purdue University, where she graduated in 2018. Following graduation, she returned to Maine and became a nurse practitioner at the Harold Alfond Center and MaineHealth Franklin Memorial Hospital. "Ginna loved spending time at their home in Rangeley with her husband and their three dogs, Quimby, Dodge and Asher," her obituary said. "Ginna found joy in spending time at the beach in the summer and snowmobiling through the woods in the winter. "She was happiest when she was 'up to camp' surrounded by her family and friends, listening to music, and drinking a glass of Prosecco on Saturday mornings. She was often found sitting quietly on the couch with her dogs, a strong cup of coffee and reading a book." Dixie's "Cabin Masters" costar Ryan Eldridge, a lifelong friend of the pair, shared a tribute to Ginna on Instagram. He posted a throwback photo of himself with Ginna along with another image that was taken during their childhood. "We were born on the same day two years apart, our parents were best friends, you married my best friend," Eldridge wrote. Eldridge said Ginna "should have been my little sister for 11 years" before his younger sibling Kali was born, but noted that she was "too damn tough and strong willed for that." The reality star said Ginna "could be one of the boys riding around inside the house on bicycles on Iron Mine Hill and at that same time be the powerful, no nonsense women you came to be." "I will never forget that time I whacked you with a tennis racket, you calmly gave me a look that I'll never forget as you weren't phased and knew I was screwed as you calmly walked back to tell our parents," he recalled. Eldridge shared that he was "there the night you and Matty locked eyes and were dancing on the countertops." "You have been a big part of my life since day one and left this world way to soon, but you sure did make a mark in your short time," he added. "I love you Gin!" "Main Cabin Masters" made its debut on the Magnolia Network, which was then known as the DIY Network before it was purchased by Chip and Joanna Gaines. The series follows carpenters Dixie, Eldridge and Jared "Jedi" Baker, along with contractor Chase Morrill, his designer sister and Eldridge's wife, Ashley Morrill, as they renovate and restore cabins in Maine. The 10th season of "Maine Cabin Masters" premiered Dec. 30, 2024.
