[[Bill Church]] was a philanthropist and amateur scientist, known for being a part owner of [[Church's Fried Chicken]]. In the early 1970s, he provided [[Hal Puthoff]] with ten thousand dollars in initial funding to begin his [[Parapsychology|psi]] experiments at [[Stanford Research Institute|SRI]]. This private funding was crucial in the nascent stages of the remote viewing research program, preceding the involvement of the [[Central Intelligence Agency|CIA]].[^1] --- [^1]: Schnabel, Jim. *Remote Viewers*. Dell, 1997.