J. Clyde Barcus was born December 27, 1889 in Huntington, Cable County, West Virginia. He attended Pikesville Collegiate Institute in Kentucky, where he studied for a degree in mining engineering. His studies were temporarily suspended, however, when Clyde followed his father Clyde Sr., who operated a coal mine at the time, to Goldfield, Nevada after the gold rush of 1906. Their hoped-for mine never came to be, and Clyde Sr.

Pediatric cardiologist Tina Kwan arrived in Las Vegas as a toddler and attended two private schools before graduating from Kenny Guinn Middle School and The Academy of Mathematics, Science Arts and Technology (A.M.S.A.T.) at Clark High School after being recruited by Principal Wayne Tanaka. After completing University of Nevada School of Medicine in Reno, she did her pediatrics residency at University of Arizona in Tucson and her cardiology fellowship at Arkansas Childrens Hospital before joining Childrens Heart Center of Nevada.