I AM Santa Claus (according to my bank statement!)
Honored to work for you @T26E4. 
My father was an ambassador. 
Past tense because he died a few years ago, but I knew a Nobel Prize-winning scientist.
My college bf is a current US ambassador. Think how different my life would be if I had accepted his marriage proposal! No regrets, but talk about the path not taken.
My great uncle Bob was a famous playwright (Robert E. Lee). No, not the southern general! He wrote some famous plays, like “Inherit the Wind” and “Auntie Mame”. I’m kind of embarrassed to admit I just saw “Inherit the Wind” six years ago, but I really liked it.
One or two Nobel prize winners.
Show business people…not a surprise…husband went to school with a US Ambassador…lots of sports professionals. I think that the purpose of this thread is how fame/success can come from people of many backgrounds, social/economic/geograhical.
I should also add a few cabinet memebers and a governor.
I met Bill Gates years ago.
And when I was four, I shook hands with JFK.
As for people who would accept a phone call from me… I’d go with my husband.
I didn’t have much interest in this topic at all (or in participating in this thread), but now I have to admit some curiosity as to who dmd77’s husband might be!
@nottelling – my point is that I don’t know any prestigious people, really. My husband is GM of our bike business. The question is “most prestigious in their career.”
^I’ve been interpreting the question the same and kept thinking of my own husband. I’m pretty sure that he’s generally considered to be the “most prestigious” in his field. But he’s not a household name.
I know a few politicians but not the President, the politician I’d call “most prestigious in their career” of politics, at least in our country. I know some “prestigious” folks, but not too many I would call “most prestigious in their career” I don’t know sports people. I have been considering which folks I know in the trades are “most prestigious in their career” That probably gets area specific.
I was interested in whether the OP meant “most important person in the eyes of the world”? That is still going to give me difficulty. Anyway, I spent some time considering the question. And all the answers were very interesting. 
Thanks for the thread, OP.
I shook hands with President Johnson and whoever was President of Somalia at the time 1968?, but I certainly didn’t know either of them.
These days I know mostly scientists, I don’t think any of them are getting the Nobel Prize though.
It’s interesting to me that so many of the responses are related to sports or politics - more to that in life and success, right?!
I have a close family member who is quite “prestigious” in his field of journalism/media. He pretty much has the premiere job in his field.
“the most prestigous in their career you personally know?” I know the World #1 (for the past 5 years) trash collector. He comes by every week. Just kidding!! I don’t know anyone really… maybe my brother… still waiting for him to win a Nobel prize but not holding my breath!
People from my neighborhood did not grow up to be notable. My closest childhood friends are a painting contractor, a plumber, and a warehouse manager.
If I limit it to someone who knows my name if we passed on the street and we have shared a beer or a meal within the past year, probably the mayor of my small suburb. I have met and shaken hands with much more recognizable people, but that hardly registers in the “personally know” test. One college friend was on the cover of Newsweek but not for the right reasons.
When I was a child, I shook hands with Bobby Kennedy, but I certainly didn’t know him. And my father had a great many friends who were well-known in New York City Democratic politics – people in Congress, etc. – and I met a lot of them, but wouldn’t call any of them people I really knew. He was friends with Eleanor Roosevelt and FDR Jr., but I never had a chance to meet them. I wish I had met Eleanor!
As far as “prestigious in their career” goes for people I did know, I suppose you can’t get more successful – at least financially – then Lloyd Blankfein, who was in my first year section in law school. I wouldn’t call him a friend, but we were certainly friendly acquaintances, and I spent a lot time hanging out with groups of people that included him. (I would not have predicted back then that he would end up as a billionaire, or whatever he is now! He was a nice, friendly, down-to-earth Jewish guy from Brooklyn. I don’t think anyone would have predicted the path his career took.)
I also had a friend – an actual close friend – who ended up as a U.S. Senator and later a cabinet member. I think he qualifies too.
Andre Kostelonez (sp) was a famous conductor. We walked in the beach with him many times as a child. He seemed like a nice guy. Have spoken with entertainers Don Ho and Danny Kaulekini. They are nice too and have sung at several family events.
I don’t usually like to namedrop or boast, and I know it’s unfair and inappropriate for me to bask in reflected glory–stolen valor?–but sometimes one can’t help oneself, and I could use a little pick-me-up as we bring to a close a very, very difficult year.
In elementary school, I had a friend named Josh. His father was a local high school basketball coach and his mother wrote for the local paper. We had a fine time together, and I have fond memories of beating up his little brother, planning elaborate shoplifting schemes (we never executed them, but the planning was a blast!), and tossing a Nerf football around in the park by his house.
In middle school, it didn’t seem like he’d amount to much. High school wasn’t much different. But apparently he had a simmering, latent creative side that the rest of us–in our philistinism–overlooked. So imagine my surprise to find out that now, so many years later, he’s become a sandwich artist. Sometimes I think about getting back in touch with Josh, but I’m wary of becoming one of those star-struck hangers-on who come out of the woodwork whenever someone hits the big time. Advice?