Thales of Miletus is often referred to as the father of science, the father of philosophy, and the father of geometry. He was a very clever man, and sought to understand the world through a study of its patterns, rejecting explanations from mythology.
We just discovered Julie Diggins' String, Straight-Edge, and Shadow, and here you can read its Thales Chapter. Among Thales' apparent accomplishments: predicting an eclipse in 585 B.C., successfully predicting a bountiful harvest of olives after several bad seasons (he was certain, he also cornered the market on olive presses beforehand, and made a great deal of money), measuring the height of Egyptian pyramids by "shadow reckoning", a strategy for measuring the distance of a ship at sea, five propositions (with proofs) of plane geometry, a theory of earthquakes (movement of land because it floated on water).
Of course, Thales was also wrong about many things (for instance, he thought all things were composed of water and that magnets (lodestones) had souls), but he inspired many generations of scientists, mathematicians, and philosophers to look for the patterns, rules, and relationships that existed in the natural world.
References:
Math Story / Lesson: On Thales
Wikipedia: Thales
Thales at the Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy
The Life and Accomplishments of Thales of Miletus
Ancient Greeks
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