David W. Emerson was born in Littleton, Massachusetts. His father, a mining engineer, moved the family to Mexico twice, once when he was one year old and again when he was seven. In 1938, his father retired to work on his apple orchard in

Littleton. Emerson helped with pruning, spraying and dusting for insects, and hauling apples to the cider mill.

Debra March was born November 25, 1953 in Detroit, Michigan. She is one of eight siblings, all of whom attended Catholic school as children and eventually went on to professional careers. March’s father worked for the city of Detroit, then moved to Las Vegas, Nevada and was hired by the Clark County School District. March came to Las Vegas for the first time in 1973. Though she left for a couple of years, she eventually settled there and attended the University of Nevada Las Vegas (UNLV), earning an undergraduate degree in anthropology and biology.

E. James (Jim) Gans was raised in Seattle, Washington and Yakima, Washington before he moved to Las Vegas, Nevada in 1950. Gans started in school at Bonanza Elementary, then to a new Hyde Park Junior High where he was part of the first class and on to Rancho High School where he graduated. His first jobs were mowing lawns, a paper route, and working at a dog boarding kennel for 25-cents an hour.