Yeah, I was very fortunate to have worked in that era with many tech heroes, too, who were always into mentoring the "young" and the rookies. Even now, I'm still learning (and earning) from the best in the biz. I worked with Dave H at Hit Factory and Sigma...
My first tech mentor was one Jeff MacBride (great Audio tech who had been tinkering with stuff since childhood), who I went to IAR with.
After that I worked w Ed Krupski at Soundworks (he would later become one of the Studer guys along with Nick Balsamo and Thor Thorensen. He also did work for Mitsu in the 90's as did Kevin Anderson who I believe Nyquist may have been referring to as the hot Mits guy, Kevin was based out of Nashville and I believe he may have passed away a couple of years ago?).
I worked at Unique with a great crew of guys: Marty Strauss (a MIDI master), Jack Kennedy (great wiring guy who taught me never give a tech a dry sponge among other things), Tony Mafucci (another great wiring guy and probably the first Mac tech I met), and later smilin' Dave Jensen (who taught me if the problem follows the swap then the problem is before the swap). I actually may have met Mike D there thru Jeff MacB, I believe, and the John Klett and Greg Hanks (these 2 guys are like the tech's tech, who the guys would call in when all else failed).
Next I went to the Factory where there was a great crew including at different times Jack K, Chris Muth (a mad scientist who later went over to Sterling who also had a great tech Bob Tis), Frank Commentale (one of the best old school techs around), Roger Deller (he's been at Clnton forever and is the goods), David Bock (now building mic's), the "Don" Cuminale, John Hechtman (aka Dr Pickehead) and, of course, Dave H!
After that it was on to Sigma where I worked with Jeff MacB, Timo Tsaris (super bench guy), Nat Priest (excellent tube and electronics guy), and Dave H again. It was at that time I met Richie Boisits, Carl Farruggia, and John Holt, who are all super techs and had all worked at Sigma, too.
Post-Sigma, I went on to Battery Studios and worked under Jack K and later Bob Schwall (an encyclopedia of studio tech knowledge). It was thru Bob I met David Smith who not only was an amazing tech but a class A guy, too.
I moved over to Dreamhire for 8 years (the longest I ever worked at one place). This was great because I got to work with my predecessor, the original Rental tech Brian Macaluso, and many other excellent tech heroes like Pete Lanzilotta at Doubletake (the Service tech), Terry Murphy and Bobby Manella of Sony, Joe "the Mic guru" Leung at Gotham, Tracy Korby (another mic guru I believe you mentioned, Fig), Mike Spitz of ATR Services, Dom Costanza at Right Track, Dan Zelman and Ron Allair at Chung King, Burt Price (Mercenary), John Caine of Toy Specialists, Digital Dan Shimiyaya (Enterprise), and countless others, not to mention other Dreamhire techs like Eric Schnorr (who although he was an assistant when we started out at hire he was instrumental in bringing Pro Tools to the studios), Roni Yehezkel, Steve Greco, and Paul Olivera.
After working freelance in Home Theater installations and doing AV events, I ended up at Sound One with an amazing crew of tech engineers who have been there a long time and some of who I knew already: Avi Laniado, Bob Troeller (Avi and Bob have been there for years and are 2 amazing and helpful guys), Mike Holmstrom (another vet with serious chops, too), Al Hale (an all around whiz from Video to networking), Phil Fuller (formerly of Power Station), Dave Lanik (great shop guy), Pat Smith (excellent bench guy), and Kenny Chung (excellent at repairing you mean they still use those projectors?). When it comes to Audio Post, these guys are golden!
Currently I'm working in broadcast where all my fellow engineers are heroes to me since it's somewhat new for me. It's great, my boss is an engineer named Rick DeWald who's been with the company for 27 years and is a real class guy, too. His boss Bill Whitton also is a broadcast veteran who worked at Atlantic Satellite for like 15 years. The cool thing as with all the techs above is that they never hesitate to help out another tech!
Last but not least many excellent techs from manufacturer from AMS-Neve, Dolby, SSL, and others.
For me, I think the trick is something Schwall once told me, that every day you keep your mind open to learn something new cos the day you stop learning; then you might as well stay home.
Also it's a small enough industry where one good turn deserves another...
Actually I always knew I'd go postal or into Broadcast someday and the way the Recording industry changed, it sorta pushed me in that direction. And that's a good thing. There is plenty of tech work, it's just in different places then one would expect.
Currently, I'm helping a friend who's building his own recording studio in Brooklyn so I guess you can never completely get out of the biz even if you wanted to but that may be a good thing when you love gear, technology, and tools... and have been at it for years.
For example, if a guy like Dave H left the biz, it would be a great loss to the industry, the industry would suffer. But you gotta do what you do.
Selling tofu pups on the beach is where I want to end up.