Mike Pinjuv Jr. was born in 1924 in Las Vegas, Nevada. Both of his parents were born in Austria-Hungary before World War I, now known as Croatia. His parents brought their family to Las Vegas in 1917 and raised six sons and two daughters during World War 1, the Great Depression, and World War II. Pinjuv Jr. attended Fifth Street School and graduated from Las Vegas High School in 1942. He became Nevada’s second registered jeweler and worked for M.J. Christensen for ten years. Pinjuv Jr.
Will Provance was born in Mississippi and grew up mostly in St. Louis, Missouri, where he earned his undergraduate degree at the University of Missouri before earning a Master’s in Business Administration from Shiller University. Provance attended the University of Nevada, Las Vegas where he earned a Master of Science in Hotel Administration. He started in the gaming industry as a pool manager at Sunset Station, and became slot analyst before entering Station Casinos’ management development program.
Connie Hill Sheldon was born November 16, 1944 in Oklahoma and spent her early years in southern California before moving to Las Vegas, Nevada in 1956 with her family. In Las Vegas, Sheldon and her siblings attended Sunrise Acres Elementary School before going to Rancho High School, and the family was active with Homesite Baptist Church. While she was at Rancho High, Sheldon worked at the Huntridge Theater, and she continued working there after she graduated. In 1968, Sheldon married fellow Rancho Class of 1962 classmate, Clyde, in Goldfield, Nevada.
Edward Butera was born April 08, 1949 in San Jose, California. He would spend hours constructing home models from the time he was a five-year-old boy. Butera also loved math and music—specifically the clarinet. After earning his Bachelor’s degree in Electrical Engineering at San Jose State University, he was hired by Ralph Joeckel as a consulting engineer for Trane, a heating and air conditioning company
indy Coletti, founder of Sun West Custom Homes, began her career designing custom homes in Florida and Colorado before moving to Las Vegas, Nevada in 1989. Coletti founded El Rancho West Homes in Florida in 1976 before moving to Colorado Springs, Colorado in the early 1980s. Her son, Dan Coletti, the principal designer, took over operations of Sun West Custom Homes in 2001 after her retirement. Over the years Coletti and Sun West Custom Homes have won a number of achievement awards and have been highlighted in construction and architecture magazines.
Dorothy Casner Evans arrived in Tonopah, Nevada in 1938. She started working for her brother-in-law, Dave Roberts, as a bookkeeper at his freighting and house-moving business (Dave is the husband of Ellen Roberts, Dorothy's sister). She later started driving trucks and moving houses for the company. In 1950, Evans left the house-moving business and began working at the Tonopah Club. She left the Tonopah Club in 1962 to take a job as deputy sheriff in Mercury, Nevada. Dorothy Casner Evans died on November 24, 1993.
Renée grew up in a family of fifteen children. In 1956 she married musician Roger Rampton, a successful percussionist. They soon moved to Las Vegas where Roger performed on the Strip. She remained active in her Mormon faith and the Church's music ministry. When the Clark County School District was going to cut their music programs in the early 1970s, she became a vocal community opponent. In the 1970s the Mormon Church opposed the Equal Rights Amendment.
Alfred J. O'Donnell was born November 8, 1922 in Boston, Massachusettes. He worked as a technician, opening the laboratory of EG&G, formally known as Edgerton, Germeshausen, and Grier, Inc., in Las Vegas, Nevada in support of the Nevada Test Site. He was part of a four-man party responsible for final checks and connections of 1968 nuclear and hydrogen bombs. He died on April 9, 2015.
Dorothy Susan Steiwer was born in Seattle, Washington on February 5, 1948 to Mary B. and Robert Leland Steiwer. On July 16, 1969 she married Robert Ritenour and the couple made their home in Las Vegas, Nevada. Dorothy attended the University of Nevada, Las Vegas and earned her bachelor's and master's degrees. She divorced Robert Ritenour on July 17, 1978. She then married Richard Franklin Wright on February 4, 1984. After Frank Wright's death in 2003, she married Richard Avila.