Dr. Robert Bruce Smith was born July 08, 1937 in Philadelphia, but considers California as home. His father’s career as a minister had taken them back to the east coast, and after his seminary training they returned to Los Angeles, California, followed by a five year stint in Oregon before returning to Vista, California. After graduating high school, Smith left home to attend Wheaton College in Illinois, a small Protestant school.

Willard H. George (1889-1956) was a Los Angeles, California based furrier who designed, created, and supplied furs to movie studios during the Golden Age of Hollywood (1920s-1960s). George was the son of Sadie Kiel George, and great-grandson of early Las Vegas, Nevada settler Conrad Kiel, owner of the Kiel Ranch in North Las Vegas, Nevada.

Former Nevada State Senator Lori Lipman Brown works as a lawyer, educator, civil rights advocate, and secular activist in the United States. Born in New York on June 17, 1958, Brown graduated from the University of Nevada, Las Vegas (UNLV), and then received her Juris Doctor from Southwestern University School of Law in 1983. After working as an attorney, Brown returned to UNLV and took courses to get her teaching license and went to work as a high school teacher.