WalterBright[0] wrote the first native code C++ compiler, Zortech C++, (later called Symantec C++ and recently DigitalMars C++) and is the man behind the D programming language.
Mr. Bright, you're my hero. Really. Not only because you have made a C++ compiler using recusive descent parser and it's was the first ever to generate native code and the first comercial too and you don't even do generate assembly on dmd. You still made the D language and dmd compiler. A world saving tool from C and C++. It will rock the world. Could you imagine one of the next world's famous software like Windows or *BSD written in D? Also, I'm on the way on compiler business too (joke :-)). (sorry english, not my native language)