Well, you can't know them all. But if you don't, you can't qualify as space nerd. And if you don't know, and won't Google, it's likely that someone will throw a fit :-]
Col. Leroy Gordon Cooper was a famous aviator and astronaut, testing experimental fighter craft and flying for the Mercury, Gemini and Apollo missions. And among other things, he was tech consultant for mobile homes, designed treasure hunting equipment, was R&D VP for EPCOT, and got the Sport Fishing Society of Spain Award. One of the things I liked most about him was that he was the first American astronaut to fall asleep on the launch pad during the countdown.
So, we was an interesting guy. Ah, and he was played by Dennis Quad in "The Right Stuff".