A Scholarship for Tomorrow’s Tradespeople

The things we do in life send echoes—echoes that frequently outlive us.

Roger Graham was a member of the CraneWerks family for 18 years. He was an extraordinary, giving man whose deeds and words sent a lot of echoes down the ages. He won’t soon be forgotten by anyone who met or worked with him. One of the ways he’ll live on is through the scholarship fund CraneWerks established in his name after his passing in 2019. The scholarship is awarded annually to a deserving local high school senior heading to a trade school. Each year’s winner will receive a $2,000.00 check from CraneWerks to go towards their schooling. If you know of such a young person in the East Central Indiana region, recommend to them that they apply and direct them to this page.

The cutoff for application to receive that year’s scholarship is March 31.

The online submission form to apply for the Roger Graham Memorial Scholarship can be found by clicking HERE.

Meet Collin Essex

Winner of the first annual Roger Graham Scholarship

The first-ever Roger Graham Scholarship was awarded in May 2020 to recent Morristown High School graduate Collin Essex of Morristown, Indiana. Collin worked through high school at Runyon’s, the big auto repair and tire shop in Morristown. Eager to get going on his career, Collin immediately started summer classes at Lincoln Technical Institute in Indianapolis, Indiana. Upon completion of his degree, he aspires to earn his own bay at Runyon’s, eventually hoping to own his own garage in a nearby community, where he plans to give the same opportunity to hard-working young mechanics that Runyon’s afforded him. Soft-spoken, affable and unfailingly polite, the six-foot-three Collin is also hard-working and ambitious – what the old-timers used to call a go-getter – who knows what he wants and isn’t afraid to do the work necessary to achieve it …in other words, the perfect choice to be the first recipient of the Roger Graham Memorial Scholarship. Keep your eye on this outstanding young man: whatever community he eventually puts down roots in will be better for having him as a member.

Roger Graham Scholarship Application

Fill out this form to apply for the Roger Graham Memorial Scholarship, a $2,000 scholarship given annually to an area high school senior who's planning to attend a trade school.

Date applying(Required)

Applicant name(Required)

First Last

Applicant email(Required)

Applicant high school, city and county(Required)

Name, city and county of high school of applicant

Cumulative GPA(Required)

Cumulative grade point average for high school

High school graduation date(Required)

Date of high school graduation

What technical school or college do you plan to attend?(Required)

Name and location of intended school

Intended Major

Main area of intended study at trade or technical school

Please fill out the sections below by answering the questions:

What are your career goal(s)?(Required)

Minimum of 3-4 sentences that fully answer the question

What are the values you live by, and how would this scholarship contribute to your living those values?(Required)

Minimum of 3-4 sentences that fully answer the question

Share a story from your life that best defines who you are as a person.(Required)

Minimum of 3-4 sentences that fully answer the question

Explain your feelings about this statement: "Scholarship money isn't given away, it's earned."(Required)

Minimum of 3-4 sentences that fully answer the question

Roger Graham 1953-2019

Some people just do more with the time they’re given on the planet. Roger Graham was one of those people. Roger not only had numerous passions and interests, he also had the talent and energy to explore them to the fullest. He had one of the biggest hearts around and a warm, welcoming smile. Sometimes you’d need to get past a gruff exterior in order to see that smile, but eventually everybody got past it. Besides being a vice-president at CraneWerks, he also was:

A professional auctioneer
A Sunday School teacher to special needs children
Santa Claus for years and years at the annual CraneWerks family Christmas party
A great cook who, together with wife Juanita, cooked dinner for veterans every Tuesday night at the Franklin Elks Lodge
A deacon at his church who led an annual mission trip to help out at the Rosebud Indian Reservation in South Dakota
An avid fisherman
An even-more-avid beekeeper – so avid, in fact, that he started his own beekeeper supply business in 1992, Graham’s Bee Works, Inc, which he ran with his wife for the rest of his life

CraneWerks’ owner Mark Thomas, one of the lucky people to call Roger a personal friend, remembers him as “a friendly guy with a broad range of experiences and expertise who was willing to share them with everyone.”