Mark Grassman was a multi-sport athlete, excelling at golf, as well as being part of the 2001 Hillsdale High School basketball team with a perfect regular season record, that was inducted into the Ashland County Sports Hall of Fame in 2018. After his record-setting, award-winning career at HHS, he played slow-pitch softball.

When Mark died unexpectedly of a massive heart attack at age 36, an anonymous donor couple with close ties to the Hillsdale community offered to provide a $10,000 gift to establish a permanent endowment fund at ACCF in Mark’s memory.

The donors asked that Mark’s family be given discretion to determine where distributions from the fund should be granted. The family chose to use the fund to benefit the Hillsdale High School baseball program.