It takes time to understand who is the true giant. Robert Metcalfe just received the ACM Turing award last week and his contributions where from the 70's. It's the same with Nobel laureates, it takes year for your work to be recognized.
Not really, no. He may have just recently received an award (he's received many awards) but Metcalfe has been recognized for his achievements for decades. He got the ACM Grace Hopper award in 1980: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grace_Murray_Hopper_Award