Doris Hanrahan was born in Fremont California, a city by the East Bay. Her father was a child psychologist and M.D. Doris attended nursing school at the Advanced Pro Nursing Institute in Hayward and graduated in 1966. One night in San Francisco a friend of hers introduced her to Jim Bronson. They dated for about two months; they enjoyed reading poems on Marina Green and eating fresh crab at Fisherman's Wharf.

Doris was very committed to her nursing career and followed her father when he purchased a ranch in Wyoming on Jackson Lake, in the Grand Teton Mountain Range, near Jackson Hole. He would build a facility to start working with children with the (then) unknown problems of Autism. She called Jim often and letters went back and forth for about three months.

Dr. Charles Hanrahan, Jr. a student, graduate and doctor of Johns Hopkins Hospital was a young doctor who started working with Dr. Leo Kanner in 1943. When Dr. Kanner retired in the mid 1960s, Dr. Hanrahan continued his work, and was able to start a foundation, the first of its kind to help autistic children. The foundation funded the Hanrahan Ranch in Wyoming.

Since this time he and his team, have helped thousands of children as well as their families understand the autistic mind. Dr. Hanrahan retired from practice in 1988, but still resides on the ranch with his daughter Doris.

Johnny Beaman - The Runner. Johnny came from a home in Tulsa, Oklahoma. He proceeded through the treatment well, once he spent those two weeks with Jim Bronson in the fall of 1969.

Johnny went on to graduate from high school in Tulsa, and then graduate from the Oklahoma Baptist College in Oklahoma City. From there he ventured out to help others with Autism and to gain and education. He was instrumental in assisting others to lay the foundation for Autism Speaks, which is now a world wide organization and is on the Board of Consultants. Johnny is now married and living in Wyoming 20 miles from the Hanrahan Ranch, were he works part time.