Someone blew my mind by convincing me to read Bush’s “As we may think” which was published in 1945. Then I started digging into him and discovered he was also the second president of the ACM, was instrumental in shaping the formation of the National Science foundation (mainly by critiquing their initial plans as unworkable) and also Claude Shannon’s doctoral advisor. Because of course he was.

Not to mention instrumental in getting the Manhattan Project going, along with many other research projects during WWII. He basically knew everyone. I didn't know he was Shannon’s advisor though!