Famous imposter, counterfeiter stresses the virtues of being a good father, husband

ORLANDO, Fla. — Today during the opening general session of Optometry's Meeting, Frank W. Abagnale, made famous by the movie about his life, Catch Me If You Can, detailed his experiences posing as an airline pilot, lawyer and doctor, but said his wife and children changed his life.

In the 1960s between the ages of 16 and 18, Mr. Abagnale took 250 flights, visited 26 countries and flew more than a million miles as a passenger posing as an airline pilot. He passed the bar in Louisiana after studying for 2 months and worked for a judge for a year. He indicated on an apartment application in Atlanta that he was a doctor and ended up filling in for a doctor on staff at a local hospital for 2 weeks.

Mr. Abagnale was arrested in a small town in France where he was jailed for forgery. Then he was extradited to Sweden and served time in a penitentiary there. Subsequently, U.S. federal authorities returned him to the United States where he was sentenced to 12 years in prison. At 26 years of age, after serving 4 years of his sentence, the government released Mr. Abagnale in exchange for his indenture as an employee of the federal government for the remainder of his sentence.

"This year I celebrate 35 years with the FBI," he said.

"I've always looked upon what I did [as a teenager] as immoral, illegal and unethical and it is a burden I truly live with every single day of my life," Mr. Abagnale said. "I would remind you of the real lesson I learned, what it truly means to simply be a man. It has nothing to do with money, achievements, skills accomplishments, degrees, professions, positions. A real man loves his wife. A real man is faithful to his wife. A real man, next to God and his country, puts his wife and children as the most important thing in this life."