My team mates and I designed and built an audio engine around the theories of Walter Murch*, the innovative sound designer, for our most recent game. Amazingly, and coincidentally, I got to spend an hour at lunch with him last summer. At the time I didn't know who he was, just that he was very interesting and astute. After he got up and left, someone mentioned who he was. I'm kind of glad I didn't know at the time, because not knowing let me carry on a normal conversation!

There's a fantastic interview here:

http://www.transom.org/guests/review/200504.review.murch.pdf

* I'll refer you to the imdb page for his filmography, it's an astonishing oeuvre.