Robert T. and Arlene Hamilton began the Excellence in Agriculture scholarship as a way to support the next generation of production agriculturalists and their educational goals after supporting the development of the Hamilton Campus at Ellsworth Community College. Bob Hamilton was born on a farm in Hardin county Iowa, near Iowa Falls on August 8, 1924. He attended the Maple Grove country school and graduated from the Iowa Falls High School in 1942. He attended Ellsworth College in Iowa Falls, but his college education was cut short by his father’s death. He began farming for his mother helping to support his siblings still at home. Bob met the secretary at the local school, Arlene Westwick and they were married in November of 1946. They lived in an apartment in town and Arlene walked to her job at the school every day while Bob drove the farm truck out to the farm. They moved to the farm in 1950. Arlene continued to work in town until Bob asked her to work for him instead of the school.