I understand if you are in tech you might not know figures in history or literature... but these guys?
Every time you login to a UNIX/Linux system you use the passwd file and related setup - authored at least in part by Rtm's father.
http://www.manpages.info/freebsd/passwd.1.html
Rtm has done lots in his own right as the wikipdia pages show.
But seriously - if you don't know who these people are you really should.
Read this: http://www.princeton.edu/~hos/Mahoney/unixhistory
and maybe ESR's writings and that online anthology of the early Apple days and old issues of 2600, etc, etc
I am sorry - but it is really irritating to me that someone would be on this site and really not be aware of the deeper history and culture. It is not that deep - 1950s to present (to cover Lisp).
As Jay-Z (whom you probably know) says - "Go read a book you illiterate son of a bitch and step up your vocab ..."