Robert Aalberts grew up in a small town called Bemidji, Minnesota. He enjoyed all kinds of outdoors sports in winter and summer. He attended school there from kindergarten through his bachelor's degree.

Robert obtained his master's at the University of Missouri, and then taught geography at the University of New Orleans. After 4 years there, he decided to attend law school at Loyola University, and received his law degree in 1982.

James Frey was born in Eureka, South Dakota, in 1941. His father worked in creamery and his mother was a registered nurse. When Frey was nine, the family, including his twin sister, relocated in Sioux Falls where his dad was plant manager for a dairy. He joined the YMCA in the fourth grade and ended up working for them until around the age of 22. He attended Augustana College in Sioux Falls, graduating with a major in sociology and a minor in history. After graduation, he worked for three years at the YMCA in Sioux Falls as program director.

Judge Lloyd D. George was born on February 22, 1930, in Montpelier, Idaho. He attended grade school and high school in Las Vegas, Nevada, and earned his bachelor’s degree from Brigham Young University in 1955. Later that same year, he entered the United States Air Force and worked as a fighter pilot in the Strategic Air Command. In 1958, he concluded his military service as a captain and in 1961, earned his Juris Doctor degree from the University of California at Berkeley.