William M. Akutagawa, Jr. was born February 18, 1948 on Moloka'i. His late father, William M. Akutagawa, Sr., was the son of Japanese immigrants. His mother, Katharine Hagemann Akutagawa, is the daughter of a German immigrant father and Hawaiian mother.  William grew up in KamalO and visited his grandparents in 'Ualapu'e often, spending much of his youth fishing the waters off of 'Ualapu'e Fishpond. He attended Kilohana School and Moloka'i High School, graduating in 1966.

John Vegas, Puerto Rican, the sixth of fifteen children, was born on November 30, 1912, in North Kohala, Hawaii.  His parents immigrated to North Kohala from Puerto Rico in 1901.  Antone Vegas, John's father,worked as a laborer at Kohala's Union Mill Plantation.  In 1924, the family moved to Honolulu where Antone Vegas worked as a track layer for Honolulu Rapid Transit (HRT).

David Souza, Portuguese, was born February 7, 1906, in Honolulu. His father, a former storekeeper, died when David was three years old. The family then moved to Kalihi Valley, where David has lived ever since. He attended schools in Kalihi Valley and Kalihi Waena and graduated from St. Louis in 1926. During this time, David participated in community- and school-sponsored sports. After graduating from St. Louis, David worked as a wharf clerk for the Inter-Island Steam Navigation Company. He remained there until 1952. He then became a wharf clerk for Thea H. Davies and Co., Ltd.

Peter Martin, Portuguese-Hawaiian, was born in Kalihi on June 29, 1905. His family owned a taro patch in the area behind the present Kalihi Union Church. As a youth, Peter was active in neighborhood sports and was a member of the Kalihi Thundering Herd barefoot football team in the 1920s. He attended K~lfhi-Waena School and completed the tenth grade at McKinley High School. Peter then began working as a sailor on an inter-island lighthouse boat, transporting gas tanks to different lighthouses. In 1932, Peter secured a job as a streetcar and trolley conductor for Honolulu Rapid Transit.

Joe A. Joseph, Portuguese-Hawaiian, was born in Kalihi on March 10, 1913.  His father, Antone Joseph ( 11Antone Joe 11 ) owned a dairy located near the present site of Kalihi Shopping Center. As a youth, Joe helped his father at the dairy. Joe attended Kalihi-Waena Elementary School and completed the ninth grade at Kalakaua Intermediate. In 1932, he began work as a surveyor at the Pearl Harbor Naval Shipyard. Just prior to World War II, Joe moonlighted as a nightclub bouncer. Until 1945, Joe, along with his brothers, helped at the family-run dairy.

Sabas T. Jamito, Tagalog, was born in Camarines Norte, Philippines on January 12, 1912. At the age of five months, he and his family immigrated to the Big Island of Hawaii. Until 1922, when the family moved to Hilo, Sabas lived on various sugar plantations: Papaaloa, Paauilo, Ookala, and Olaa. While in Hilo, Sabas helped his father in the sugarcane fields and earned money as a shoe shine boy. He attended Kapiolani School, Hila Union School, Hilo Intermediate, and Hila High. In 1929, Sabas began his boxing career in Hilo, making five dollars a fight.

Yen Cheung Au, Chinese, the sixth of sixteen children, was born in Waiahole, Oahu on March 7, 1894. His father was a rice farmer in Waiahole. Yen Cheung helped his father in the fields by scaring away the birds which threatened the rice crops. He also helped the family by catching fish and shrimp.

Albert Oliveira Adams, Portuguese, was born May 21, 1909, in Nuuanu, Oahu.

''Iki" Moir is the only child of Hector Moir and Alexandria Knudson Moir. Hector Moir was the manager of Koloa Sugar Company from 1933 to 1948; he stepped down when Koloa Sugar Company merged with Grove Farm. Alexandria Knudson Moir is a descendent of the Sinclair, Gay and Robinson families who owned Ni'ihau and parts of Kaua'i.

Marsue McGinnis McShane was born May 15, 1924 in Cincinnati, Ohio. Her father, Ralph McGinnis, was a professor of English and journalism at Miami University in Ohio. Her mother, Erma Kl>enig McGinnis, was a homemaker. McShane and an older brother were raised in the college town of Oxford, Ohio. She also spent part of her childhood with her grandmother in nearby Covington, Kentucky. McShane attended schools in Oxford, graduating from high school in 1941.