Jack Wayne Zunino was born July 13, 1948, in Elko, Nevada to John Wilson Zunino and Loretta Yvette Hansen. He earned a bachelor's degree in psychology from the University of Utah and a master's degree in landscape architecture and environmental panning from Utah State University. In 1989, Zunino established JW Zunino Landscape Architecture, a firm that became a cornerstone of landscape design in the Southwest.

The Marjorie Barrick Museum of Natural History was founded as the Museum of Natural History by Richard H. Brooks in 1967 in Las Vegas, Nevada. Brooks was then the director of the Desert Research Institute (DRI). The museum was owned by DRI until the ownership was transferred to the University of Nevada, Las Vegas in 1969. The museum's primary operations included exhibitions that displayed artifacts and artworks of the archaeology, history, and geology of Southern Nevada.