James Dunnigan was certainly one of the driving / intellectual forces behind commercial wargaming in the 1970s - 90s.
Dunnigan designed hundreds of games, mostly for SPI, but other publishers as well. Many of his board games are still classics, and played regularly: Panzerblitz (published by Avalon Hill), Panzergruppe Guderian (published by SPI), Sniper (SPI), France '40 (both SPI and AH), NATO Division Commander (SPI), to name a few...
His book, The Complete Wargames Handbook was first written in 1980 (I believe), but was updated over the years. This is the final version, from 2007.
The book has a very relevant discussion of computer gaming from a design perspective. Also some great insight into wargaming history.
It is available for download on archive.org
https://ia902201.us.archive.org/31/items/comprehensive-guide-to-board-wargaming/Complete-Wargames-Handbook-Dunnigan.pdf (https://ia902201.us.archive.org/31/items/comprehensive-guide-to-board-wargaming/Complete-Wargames-Handbook-Dunnigan.pdf)