The John & Susan Collins Scholarship for the Study of Historic Preservation

John and Susan Collins were married for 27 years, and for most of them they worked side by side to protect the historic character of their adopted hometown, Marshall, Michigan.

John grew up in Boston, served in World War II and graduated from Boston University. He built a career in journalism and public relations, and came to Michigan as vice president of public relations for the Eaton Corporation plant in Marshall, where his job was to bring national attention to the city and its history. Susan (Jones) Collins grew up in Indiana and graduated from Purdue University. She worked as a computer engineer with Honeywell in Detroit, and chose to live in Marshall for its historic charm.

Both served as presidents of the Historical Society of Michigan and the Marshall Rotary Club, and on the board of the Marshall Historical Society. John toured the country promoting historic preservation and Marshall's work to revitalize its hundreds of 19th-century homes. Susan co-chaired the committees that won Marshall its designation as a National Historic Landmark District and that ran the annual Marshall Historic Home Tour. Together they created and led historical and architectural walking tours for decades.

Prior to John's death in 2004, they formed the scholarship, and after Susan's death in 2020, it was fully funded. They established the scholarship to assist students seeking graduate degrees in historic preservation in their home states of Massachusetts and Indiana and their adopted home of Michigan, with a preference for those interested in using those skills post-graduation for work in those same states. Today it is open to graduate students at any school in the United States or Canada that offers a graduate degree in historic preservation.

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