Jerome D. "Jerry" Mack (1920-1998) was a banker, investor, and community leader in Las Vegas, Nevada. Mack and his business partner E. Parry Thomas were the first bankers to loan money to casinos in Las Vegas. Mack was a co-founder of Nevada Southern College in the 1950s, now known as the University of Nevada, Las Vegas (UNLV). Mack and Thomas established UNLV's land foundation, which added 400 acres to the campus in 1967, and they funded the basketball stadium, which was named the Thomas & Mack Center in their honor.
Jerome Countess was born on December 22, 1920 in Brooklyn, New York. His mother raised him as a single mother, making ends meet with her job in a clothing factory. Countess's father rarely held a job, and his mother divorced him when Countess was three-years-old. Countess grew up in the borough's Jewish neighborhood, and he developed a reputation for being a skillful handball player and a great dancer.