The previous chair of the Tuff Torq Corporation, Dr. Kojiro Yamaoka, gifted $50,000 to support higher education scholarships in 1990. Dr. Kojiro inspired Dwight Nelson, then interim president of the Morristown Area Chamber of Commerce, Earnest Walker Ed.D., then superintendent of the Hamblen County School System, and Takao Ogishita, then president of Tuff Torq Corporation to start HC*EXCELL.