I've always assumed his inclusion in the story was just to make the story more interesting. I wonder if anybody ever asked him about it at all.

After researching a bit, the story actually is from 1977, I found a PDF from the magazine and it does mention him, even though he wasn't famous except for those tech enthusiast circles. Maybe the story is embellished a bit, but at least it wasn't made up in internet times.

That was fun. I should have kept track of how soon I solved it.