On October 28 and November 6, 1987, Chester Newton interviewed Professor Eric B. Kraus for the University Corporation for Atmospheric Research and the American Meteorological Society's oral history project. Kraus discusses his early life, including his birth in Liberec, Czechoslovakia, in 1912, and his education in Switzerland and Vienna before pivoting from business to meteorology. Influenced by travel experiences and interactions with figures in science, Kraus pursued studies in meteorology, eventually assisting prominent meteorologists in Bergen, Norway, just before World War II.

Henry Van De Boogaard was born in 1923 in The Hague, Netherlands, to a family of bricklayers. He had two brothers who followed their father's trade and a younger sister. In 1938, his family gradually migrated to South Africa, with Van De Boogaard, his sister, and his mother being the last to leave. He developed an interest in meteorology from a young age, often observing the meteorological department across the road from his school and being fascinated by weather forecasts.