I have been a dedicated user and developer of Visio since 1996 when I got a week-long developer training course presented by Dave Edson (see http://vizfirst.sharepoint.com/Pages/MrDavidAEdsonCEO.aspx ) and Mark Davison in Paris. Previous to that, I had been working with CAD and databases (or spread sheets), but I had noticed either version 1 or 2 of Visio on a computer mag cover disk, and earmarked it for future investigation.
We have recently been made aware that Ted Johnson, one of the original founders, has a website with the history of Visio up to the acquisition by Microsoft in 1999 ( see http://www.visiocorp.info ). It is fascinating reading, and there are lots of faces that I met there, plus some that you should still be aware of ( eg Chris Roth, aka VisGuy http://www.visguy.com/ ).
Visio is a unique product, and the story of Visio shows that it is a well-loved one, with an enthusiastic team behind it, and an watchful community eager to see it further develop!