Though he wasn’t an alien fanatic, the man who helped found the International UFO Museum in Roswell always believed that whatever landed in a farmer’s field near the city in 1947 was “not of this earth,” his daughter Julie Shuster said.

Walter Haut, who was an Army lieutenant and spokesman for the Roswell Army Air Field the night of that discovery, died Thursday at the age of 83. Haut, along with Glenn Dennis and Max Littell, founded the International UFO Museum in 1991.

Haut issued a news release about the report of a recovered flying saucer on July 8, 1947, on orders from base commander Col. William Blanchard.

The next day, the Roswell Daily Record ran the headline, ‘‘RAAF Captures Flying Saucer on Ranch in Roswell Region.’’

Later that same day, a statement was released saying it was determined that the “flying saucer” was nothing more than a weather balloon.

‘‘I guess they changed their mind,’’ Haut told The Associated Press in 1997.

Haut resigned from the military in 1948.

Julie Shuster said her father didn’t talk much about the 1947 incident until interest in aliens and flying saucers resurfaced in the late 1980s.

“He handed us a book (“The Roswell Incident”) and said, ’Want my autograph?’” she said.

Shuster, who now serves as director of the museum, said her father hadn’t been involved with the museum for about a year. He was the first president of the corporation and held that title until 1996.

The museum, which is in the former Plains Theater, will be moved farther north on Main Street across from McDonald’s once a new building is completed.

The International UFO Museum hosts 200,000 visitors a year from all over the globe. More than 2 1/2 million people have visited the museum since it opened in 1992.

Haut was born June 3, 1922, in Chicago and was stationed with the Army in Roswell twice before deciding to make it his home in 1946, his daughter said.

In addition to founding the museum, Haut was also an insurance agent with General American and later owned the Gallery of Art and Frame shop.

He was involved in a number of civic and public service activities, including the Roswell Chamber of Commerce and Development Tourist and Recreation Committee and stints as chairman of the Zia Council Girl Scout Council Camp Mary White committee and chairman of the Boy Scouts “Together Plan” and the annual Soap Box Derby.

Haut also was a founding member and the first president of the Roswell YMCA.

He was inducted into the New Mexico Tourism Hall of Fame in 2002.

“He will be sorely missed,” said Mayor Bill Owen. “He was a strong supporter of Roswell and a true gentleman.”

Haut is survived by his two daughters, Shuster and Marabeth Fields of Roswell, three grandchildren and four great-grandchildren.

A viewing is scheduled to begin at 11 a.m. today at LaGrone Funeral Home. Funeral services are set for 11 a.m. Tuesday at Trinity United Methodist Church.

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