Civil rights leader James B. McMillan was born in 1917 in Aberdeen, Mississippi and moved to Michigan in 1931 with his family. He finished his high school education in Hamtramck, Michigan where he was the first African-American captain of the football and track teams. In 1936, he opted to enroll at the University of Detroit rather than the segregated University of Michigan. After graduation, he moved to Nashville, Tennessee to attend Meharry Medical College School of Dentistry.

Richard "Dick" Blackburn Taylor was a prominent businessman in Las Vegas, Nevada and amateur historian of Southern Nevada. Taylor was born on January 31, 1929 in Quincy, Illinois and grew up in Glendale, California. After graduating high school in 1947, he attended Washington and Lee University, the University of Southern California, and the University of Hawaii. He served in the 4th Infantry Division of the United States Army in Germany during the occupation following WWII. In 1957, he married Charlene Flora Belknap and they had four children.