Gilbert Shaw, better known as Gil, was raised in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, and Los Angeles, California, where he had his bar mitzvah. At the age of 17, he enlisted in the US Navy and became a combat correspondent. The next twenty-seven years was a military career in both the Navy and Coast Guard and included service in both Korea and Vietnam. His training as a journalist and photographer gave him a trained eye on the history around him. This gave him a keen eye on his experiences as a founding member of Las Vegas' first Reform Judaism synagogue, Congregation Ner Tamid.
Consulting geologist and surveyor Franklin Mac Murphy was born on December 27, 1898 in Wheaton, Minnesota. He studied at Columbia University, the University of Arizona, and the University of California, Los Angeles, completing his graduate studies in 1930 at the California Institute of Technology, in Pasadena, California.
Teacher Verna Mortensen (1904-1979) was born to Frank and Elthera Cox in Bunkerville, Nevada. The family relocated to St. George, Utah in 1910. Verna Mortensen went on to graduate from Dixie State Junior College in St. George. She served a mission for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints to the Eastern United States.