I don't want to belittle the work of Mr Kane, but your pdf mainly refers to him as having an administrative role, less so am technical one.

But then the original article about Easton mentions him having received an award as part of the 'GPS team'.

Truth is, projects the size of GPS spanning that many disciplines will have dozens of people that rightfully can be called father of (parts of) the whole. And while some minions might have been easily replaced, a few grest minds will have significantly advanced their field of research while making the project fly.