Dr. Stanford "Ford" Filbrick Pines, Ph.D. (born late 1940s – early 1950s in Glass Shard Beach, New Jersey), also known as The Author, is a mysterious paranormal investigator who came to Gravity Falls, Oregon, to study the huge concentration of supernatural activity in and around the town. After spending years cataloging his research in a series of journals, he disappeared into an alternate dimension, his writings the only evidence of his existence.