Joyce Mack was a community leader, volunteer, and philanthropist in Las Vegas, Nevada who supported UNLV since its founding. Born Joyce Rosenberg on August 17, 1925 in Los Angeles, California, she later attended the University of California, Los Angeles, where she met her husband Jerome D. "Jerry" Mack. The couple married in 1946 and moved to Las Vegas, Nevada in 1947.

Harry Sax was born May 01, 1939 in Chicago, Illinois, the son to first generation American Jews. He spent his childhood on Chicago's Southside, where his family belonged to a progressive Reform congregation. After graduating from Hyde Park High School, he continued his education at Indiana University. In college, Sax was a member of the Zeta Beta Tau Jewish fraternity, participated in a singing group, and was a cadet in the Reserve Officers' Training Corps.