If you like to talk on your cell phone, then you have Marty Cooper to thank for it - he's the father of the mobile phone:
Cooper filed a patent for the 'radio telephone system' in 1973, while working at Motorola, and was the first person to make a call on a portable cell phone. (He called a rival engineer at Bell Labs.) Cooper has stated that his inspiration came from watching Star Trek's Captain Kirk talk on his communicator device. Today, Cooper is the CEO and founder of ArrayComm.
For more "fathers of technology," check out this slideshow from NetworkWorld: Link - via AQFL