Modem Master, Napoleon Solo
He started on his way to hackerdom in early 1983 when He bought his first modem, a Networker 300 baud (What a gem!!) to use in his Apple II+. He asked the salesperson for the numbers of the local boards (at the time there were a whole 3 here, and one was an IBM users group board). Well, it just so happened one was an Apple board run on an old version of Networks II, with a sysop who had been known to rip off a local extender here and there. After chatting with him for a while he realized Modem Master was one of those eager-to-learn Jr. High kids, so he put him in touch with several other users of his board. Well, one of those was Simon Templar, who would later be the sysop of the Pearly Gates.
Simon gave him his first code (to an 800 number owned by LDX), and the numbers of some boards where he might pick up some more additional knowledge (IC's Socket, AT&T Phone Center, and Sherwood Forest). Well, after pestering just about anybody that seemed to know ANYTHING, he was on his way. Soon, he was frequenting at least one board in almost every area code. He had also learned the advantage of scanning exchanges, he found several local PBXes and a Sprint indial that nobody seemed to known about. That facilitated his "habit" even more and he then found a little Diversi-Dial dubbed "Beandial." That was where he really got off the ground. It was frequented by many knowledgeable phreaks, so between that and all of the BBSes he was on, he had a wealth of knowledge to look to all at his fingertips when he had a question.
Beandial also left him with several good friends, the most notable being Lord Kahz. It also put him in touch with someone rather well known, King Blotto.
Memorable bulletin boards that he has been on include; The Pearly Gates, AT&T Phone Center, Blottoland (even though he was only actually on during the last phase of its life), and Bean Dial, plus all the normal ones that everybody and his brother were on.