James Cardie is from Brainerd, a small town in central Minnesota. He attended Catholic grade school in Brainerd and a boarding high school in Prairie du Sac, Wisconsin.
James earned an undergraduate degree at Holy Cross in western Massachusetts, and a Ph.D. in Civil Engineering from the University of Minnesota. He did research (physical experiments and numerical modeling) at St. Anthony Falls Hydraulic Laboratory, created a computer program that was used in the design of many large storm sewer systems
Rabbi Mel Hecht was born July 8, 1939 in Detroit, Michigan. At the age of five, his family moved to Miami, Florida where they had a large, extended Jewish family, complete with relatives who were hazzans and mohels. Soon after moving to Florida, his parents bought a hotel in Hialeah, a city 10 miles outside of Miami, where Hecht spent the remainder of his childhood.
Jack Kaufman (September 3, 1935-August 2, 2015) was a Las Vegas lawyer and judge. Kaufman was born in Cleveland September 3, 1935. He graduated from the University of Arizona where he earned his Bachelors in engineering. He also attended Westminster College in Salt Lake City, Utah where he received his Masters in business. Kaufman completed his education at the California Western School of law where he was awarded with a Juris Doctorate. Kaufman moved to Las Vegas in 1965 as a government lawyer for the Nevada Test Site.