Internet was created by many people, not many of them known to general audience. When you browse the list of RFCs you can find a long list fo names. The most important old and important ones were written or written with help of Jon Postel. He was editor of RFCs about IP, TCP and many other things.
In his texts you can find nice citations. For example, in IP RFC (no 791) we have:
A name indicates what we seek. An address indicates where it is. A route indicates how we get there.
and
In general, an implementation must be conservative in its sending behavior, and liberal in its receiving behavior.
He was first member of Internet Society, author or co-author of 200 of RFCs.
Jon Postel died at the age of 55 on October 16, 1998. Before most of the people who are online had their first contact with the Internet.