Eileen Hamilton, Ocean Legacy Circle donor since 2013

When it comes to teaching young people the importance of ocean conservation and what it means to make a difference for our planet, Eileen Hamilton comes quickly to mind.

Eileen is a retired teacher and loyal supporter of the Aquarium. Eileen and her late husband, Hobart, a professor at California State University, Stanislaus, met in Washington state. In 1969, Hobart attended a conference near Asilomar State Beach in Pacific Grove, California. This conference changed Hobart and Eileen’s lives forever. While Hobart was at his conference, Eileen, pregnant with their older daughter, explored the nearby tide pools. She enjoyed discovering hermit crabs and sand dollars. Eileen believes that her daughter, Laurissa, “learned from osmosis” and absorbed Eileen’s deep fascination with the ocean.

From the 1970s onward, Eileen, Hobart and a family that now included a second daughter, Elise, made it a priority to visit Asilomar State Beach and Cannery Row on a regular basis. When the Aquarium opened in 1984, they felt supporting this new ocean conservation center was the right thing to do.

During this time, Eileen would often drive over two hours each way to bring her students to see the Aquarium. Unfortunately, many of her Central Valley students had never had an opportunity to see the ocean before those visits. Eileen would often bring pregnant teens to encourage and motivate them to continue their education and make a difference in the world. To this day, many of these now successful women have stayed in touch with Eileen. She believes there’s no greater feeling in the world than to see the success of her students.

After Hobart passed away in 2005, Eileen wanted to do something transformational to honor his memory. She decided to create a personal endowment through her estate plan to establish the Hobart, Eileen, Laurissa and Elise Hamilton Endowment Fund to support our education programs. Not only did education play a vital role in Eileen and Hobart’s lives, it also played a vital role in shaping the directions their daughters have pursued. Today, Laurissa teaches conservation ecology, focusing on endangered species, and Elise is a counselor at a middle school.

We’re deeply grateful to Eileen, the Hamilton family and to all of our Ocean Legacy Circle donors, who are making a lasting contribution to the Aquarium’s work to inspire conservation of the ocean.