Hewitt's first imposture began in 1945 when he selected a famous name from a list of university teachers and used it to apply for a position of an aerodynamic engineer.
When he began to gain academic fame, the real Ashkin wrote him to suggest that he stop.
In 1954, Hewitt was on his fifth teaching job as Dr. Kenneth Yates, an associate professor of physics at the University of New Hampshire.
[6] At that stage two other colleges had discovered that his credentials were false when they noticed that the real Kenneth Yates was currently working for an oil company.
They had only removed him from the faculty and the university authorities had decided to let him leave quietly when the details leaked out.