It's an over-used catchphrase, but Erwitt is the only photographer who actually changed my life. I was a photojournalism major in college, with aspirations of being the cliched type of globe-trotting reportage photographer, until I encountered his book Photographs and Anti-Photographs. It completely changed my notions of what a "good" photograph was, what a photograph should do, etc. Also very influential was the accompanying essay, "The Man Who Kept Something for Himself," which revolutionized my ideas about what "personal" photography should be.
I'm not sure I'd want to meet him, though. I worry that it would be like getting an invitation to hang out on the set of my favorite TV show, Mythbusters. What if Jamie and Adam and Tori and Carrie and Grant turned out to be pompous, Hollywoody jerks? Would it ruin my enjoyment of the show? Would it spoil my appreciation for Erwitt's work if he turned out not to be all that inspirational at the personal level?