Eastern Puma Researcher Dies
Posted by: Loren Coleman on May 25th, 2010
An active member of the Eastern Puma Research group, George W. Maugans III, 64, died suddenly after a massive heart attack on Sunday afternoon, May 2, 2010.
Maugans and EPR’s director John Lutz met through his late father Maugans II, after being introduced by another long-time research friend, the late Louis E. Corbin. After graduating with a law degree from Harvard and setting up a law practice in Baltimore, Maugans III joined EPR in field studies and investigations of mountain lions, Bigfoot, and other cryptid reports across central and eastern Maryland, southern Pennsylvania, Delaware, northern Virginia and eastern West Virginia.
In recent years, he collected his dedication to educating the public about gathering signs of the presence of the eastern pumas in Maryland and the surrounding states. For example, during the weekend of April 23rd through April 25th, 2010, Maugans enjoyed working as a member of the EPR group at their cougar display booth at the Spring Mountain Festival in Grant County, West Virginia.
Maugans and Lutz had planned to conduct field investigations in the Mononglahela National Forest during last weekend, so Maugans’s unexpected death has had a serious impact on the EPR’s field operations. Those plans were placed on hold, in consideration of the mood of those in the organization.
Maugans became so engrosssed with Lutz’s residence in the Potomac Highlands of West Virginia that Maugans began talking of retirement and relocating from Baltimore to that peaceful wilderness mountain site within the next 12 months. Instead, he died suddenly at his Baltimore-area home before he made his move.
An intelligent, seasoned researcher has passed away. Our condolences to his family and friends.
About Loren Coleman
Loren Coleman is one of the world’s leading cryptozoologists, some say “the” leading living cryptozoologist. Certainly, he is acknowledged as the current living American researcher and writer who has most popularized cryptozoology in the late 20th and early 21st centuries.
Starting his fieldwork and investigations in 1960, after traveling and trekking extensively in pursuit of cryptozoological mysteries, Coleman began writing to share his experiences in 1969. An honorary member of Ivan T. Sanderson’s Society for the Investigation of the Unexplained in the 1970s, Coleman has been bestowed with similar honorary memberships of the North Idaho College Cryptozoology Club in 1983, and in subsequent years, that of the British Columbia Scientific Cryptozoology Club, CryptoSafari International, and other international organizations. He was also a Life Member and Benefactor of the International Society of Cryptozoology (now-defunct).
Loren Coleman’s daily blog, as a member of the Cryptomundo Team, served as an ongoing avenue of communication for the ever-growing body of cryptozoo news from 2005 through 2013. He returned as an infrequent contributor beginning Halloween week of 2015.
Coleman is the founder in 2003, and current director of the International Cryptozoology Museum in Portland, Maine.
