Saul Marantz was old when I met him back in the 1970's, but he was a pretty interesting guy.
David Hafler--really neat guy: DYNACO!, and
James Bongiorno, of course: Hadley, Dynaco, Marantz, and SAE
as well as GAS. They worked with John Curl, as well, another neat guy, and you want to work with him, not Mark Levinson, obviously.
Henry Kloss--never met him, but Acoustic Research, KLH, Advent and.Kloss Video...neat guy on the cusp of the revolution into today's "high end" in both audio and video. All he lacked were today's microprocessors and code...he saw the future, certainly.
Jim Winey was a true pioneer, and his son continues the magic today.
Bob Fulton was a neat guy, and Bill Johnson was cranky but very dedicated to his work.
Too many to choose from, I guess...many, many more I did not list.
Neat thread!
Cheers!