Fred Demara

In another career in 1951 he founded LaMennais College in Alfred Maine which continued to exist 8 years past his departure until 1959 when it became the current Walsh University in Canton Ohio.

Ferdinand Waldo Demara, more popularly known as Fred W. Demara was a colorful and very intelligent person who assumed the identities of others in order to shortcut through life and place himself in various positions or careers. Amongst others, over time, he was a Canadian Navy Surgeon, civil engineer designing a bridge, a sheriff's deputy, an assistant prison warden, a doctor of applied psychology, a hospital orderly, a lawyer, a child-care expert, a Benedictine monk, a Trappist monk, an editor, a cancer researcher, and a teacher - and at the end of his life a hospital chaplain in his own name. Articles appeared about him in Time Magazine and Life magazine and other newspapers and publications. Robert Crichton wrote two books about him, one of which "The Great Imposter" 1959 was developed into a movie with Demara played by Tony Curtis - although the story became fictionally embellished around Curtis. This notoriety got Demara one acting role in the movie "The Hypnotic Eye". While he was a convincing actor in real life he did poorly on film. In one of his "careers" he actually made news as a successful navy surgeon saving 13 soldiers, the publicity of which became his undoing by exposing his impersonation.

Biography in: "The Scribner Encyclopedia of American Lives". Volume One, 1981-1985, pages 219-221. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1998.

Demara wrote a book called "The Great Pretender" that detailed his adventures in posing as, and getting away with, people in various occupations in which he had no experience, such as a shipboard doctor. A movie based on his book was produced, starring Tony Curtis as Demara. The TV series The Pretender (1996) was partially inspired by his life.