The Graphical waterfall was invented (see his patents) in 1979 but he didnt publish until 1981. His bio is on the University's web site. His name is Professor Stephen Pevnick and in addition to teaching art, he also teaches Gizmology and artforms used in advertising. He has been on 4 continents and recently went to China.

I guess it was a Professor of Art who created the Graphical Waterfall. His bio at the University of Wisconsin reads that he was working on this back in the 70s. He was doing 3d images before computers!