Gilbert Shaw, better known as Gil, is an original member of Congregation Ner Tamid, a Reform synagogue in Las Vegas, Nevada. Shaw was raised in Milwaukee, Wisconsin and Los Angeles, California. At the age of 17 he enlisted in the US Navy and became a combat correspondent and was trained as a journalist and photographer. In 1973 Shaw and his family moved to Los Vegas, Nevada where he took on a sales position and eventually became a regional manager for Familian Pipe and Supply Company.

Hershel Brooks was born December 3, 1930 in Brooklyn, New York. He was raised in an orthodox Jewish household, along with his four siblings, and attended Jewish community schools before pursuing his rabbinical studies. He studied at TelsheYeshiva in Cleveland, Torah Vodaath in New York, and Jewish Theological Seminary in New York.

Gail Spaulding Jaros was born on October 16, 1937, in Cicero, Illinois. a suburb of Chicago. Her father Jerry Jaros was a professional saxaphone player and her mother, Fern Spaulding Jarosm was a professional trombone player. Gail began tap and ballet lessons when she was five years old. She signed as a dancer with Moro-Landis Productions in 1956, and she worked for that company at the Sahara Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas, the Riverside Hotel and Casino in Reno, and the Beverly Hills Country Club in Covington, Kentucky.

Las Vegas, Nevada native Dennis Lee Askew is a graduate of Valley High School. In the late 1940s his family moved to Las Vegas from Florida where they were involved in gambling operations. His father worked at the Sands Hotel for thirty years. As a young man, Dennis worked as a bus boy at the Sands, and later moved to southern California after his high school graduation. In the mid 1970s, Dennis led a successful rock band called Universe that played around southern California and Las Vegas. They disbanded and Dennis worked for Odyssey Records in Las Vegas.

Ora Bland migrated to Las Vegas in 1953 from Vicksburg, Mississippi. Her husband was a radiologist and worked in Area 51 of the Nevada Test Site. He never shared information about his work and would sometimes stay at the Test Site for a week or more without coming into the city. Bland remembers the Westside business community when the Brown Derby, the Mexican store, Johnson Malt Shoppe, and Bravo Market existed. An extremely independent person, she handled most of the childcare and worked at the downtown post office (now MOB Museum) for 20 years.