Founder, Rodney Ardell Wells, was born in Topeka Kansas and raised in Compton, California. His father was career military and Rodney started his 30 year active duty Navy career in 1973, fresh out of Manuel Dominguez High School. Rodney spent 15 years of that career on surface ships and 15 on submarines. He was Chief of the Boat ("COB") on the USS Pogy and Command Master Chief on the USS Shiloh and the USS Pearl Harbor. Military service was in Rodney's blood; he was descended from several members of the First Kansas Colored Troops and the US Colored Troops, all former slaves who fought for the United States. He was also a descendant of the slaves held by the Cherokee Freedmen on his father's side of the family. Rodney retired from the Navy in 2003, with service-connected heart and lung conditions caused by his 24 years of sea service, including a bout with tuberculosis while on duty as COB. He died from those conditions on December 8, 2020, between two twelve hour shifts at the Veterans Hospital boiler plant in Fresno, CA.