The John & Susan (Rose) Dorr Scholarship was established in 2017 and has since impacted the lives of dozens of Muskingum County students. This year, eight recipients received $10,000 each.
John and Susan wanted to start the scholarship as a way to support students who are seeking higher education in the nursing, business, education, and HVAC fields. John graduated from Zanesville High School in 1964, and Susan graduated from Maysville High School in 1966. They both received support when they decided to continue their education, so it was important to them to support others at that same stage of life.
The eight recipients of the 2026 John & Susan (Rose) Dorr Scholarship are Abigail Balsley, Braxton Brownrigg, Chloe Buchanan, Chesney Carter, Cassidy Hines, Owen Larimer, Madison McConnell, and Hannah Slack.
A ceremony bringing together scholarship award winners, representatives from both the Dorr Scholarship Committee and the Muskingum County Community Foundation (MCCF), where the gathering was held, took place on May 21, 2026. MCCF manages the scholarship for the Dorr family.
“John and Susan wanted to create something in Muskingum County for the students in the schools there, so they had the opportunity to impact your education and the forward movement of your careers and the choices that you have.” Trent Pines, scholarship committee chair and nephew to John and Susan, said as he spoke to the recipients. “It was very exciting to sit down and go through this and decide who was actually going to get the checks this year. And so I am thrilled to be here on behalf of them, and we’re hoping to continue this kind of growing the scholarship over the next several years and its impact to the community.”
Pines also mentioned how many of the recipients explained how they want to give back to the community in their applications. Scholarship winners Hannah Slack (Maysville High School) and Cassidy Hines (Philo High School) echoed that sentiment after the ceremony.
“I hope to give back to students the way that the community has given to me. I have been blessed with so many scholarships, and I cannot even speak for how much that means to me and my family here,” said Slack.
“Coming back and volunteering for the community is still a thing that I plan to do,” said Hines, “I think that me getting this $10,000 will encourage me to give later in life.”
Chloe Buchanan is entering her second year at the University of Cincinnati and is a marketing major with a minor in marketing and sales.
“I feel like the Dorr story is really touching on how they continue to give back to the community and the things around them, and I just feel like a lot of their values align with my values and how I was raised, and I felt like we had a lot of similarities, so I was really honored to be able to apply,” Buchanan explained.
MCCF CEO Brian Wagner shared a little about the Dorr’s story. “If you know John’s story, [his] family was very hardworking, [there] weren’t a lot of resources among the family members, John did a lot of this himself, and as he built up, and Susan was there to support him through his career, they were very fortunate to do very well. And when they made a decision to give back, they didn’t look at where they lived before in Chicago or Miami or down in Cincinnati. They looked at Muskingum County, and they looked at Zanesville, and they looked at Maysville, and they thought it was very important to support individuals who came out of their community.”
For more information about scholarship opportunities, visit mccf.org. Donations can also be made to any of the funds managed by MCCF, including the John and Susan (Rose) Dorr Scholarship Fund.
