Getting your Trinity Audio player ready...

Deborah Dunn had an enormous impact on her students as a middle school teacher and a high school administrator. She died at age 47 in 2016 from breast cancer.

Her husband, Kevin Dunn, has kept her legacy alive with an annual scholarship that will have given out more than $10,000 this year.

The scholarship, named the Deborah Dunn Memorial Scholarship, goes to a Callaway High senior who is planning to earn a degree in a science-related field. The amount awarded will be more than $1,000.

“It’s her legacy, it’s what she stood for. She really cared for the kids,” Dunn said. “She had a genuine love for the students that she taught.”

The couple was married for 20 years and they have five children, all who are college-age and older.

Dunn said through her illness, she stressed to kids that life is not fair.

“It’s OK to waddle and have a pity party on the day you get knocked down, but the next day, you have to put the boxing gloves back on and keep fighting,” Dunn said of his wife’s philosophy.

He said she always said that it’s better to train a child than to repair an adult.

Anyone CHS students who want to apply can reach out to the school’s guidance counselor for more information. Dunn said the deadline is coming up in early April.

A scholarship committee made up a college science professor, a school superintendent (but not TCSS Superintendent Brian Shumate) and others evaluate the students’ applications and makes the decision.

Dunn, who currently serves on the Troup County School Board, said she was a big factor in him making the decision to serve in that role as well. He’s currently in the second year of his first term.

“She was the deciding factor after I analyzed everything,” Dunn said.

“I actually heard her voice. She said ‘you got to do this.’ That was the icing on the cake for me accepting to walk into the school board.”

Dunn said generous donors have helped him keep the scholarship going over the years, but he’s always looking for anyone who would be willing to donate.

He said anyone who wants to help can contact him at Dunn4u@charter.net.   

His mailing address is 514 Ridley Avenue, LaGrange, GA 30240.