Muskingum County Driving School

Richard Ross first entered driver education in 1961, working for Drive Safe Systems Inc. in Dayton, Ohio. Over the next nine years, he gained experience at their locations across Ohio, Missouri, Colorado, and Texas. In 1970, Ross decided to bring that knowledge home to the Licking and Muskingum County areas by opening Licking Valley Driving School in Newark, Ohio. The school started on the third floor of the Reinhart building before moving to the basement. In 1973, we opened a second school—Muskingum County Driving School—in Zanesville. By 1975, our Newark school had relocated to the basement of the AAA building at 130 W. Main St., where we operated as AAA Licking Valley Driving School. We called that location home until AAA’s corporate headquarters decided to stop franchising driving schools. From 1970 through the mid-1980s, Licking Valley Driving School held contracts with several Boards of Education to provide driver education for 19 high schools across four counties. That came to an end when state laws changed and gave high schools the option to offer drivers ed directly. In 1992, we moved to our current address, 224 Granville St. in Newark. When Mr. Ross retired from day-to-day ownership in 1996, his daughter Debbie Grandstaff and her husband George became the new owners. Ross stayed on as CEO and advisor. From the very beginning, our mission has been to be an asset to the local community by offering quality driver education at a reasonable price. We believe the thousands of students who have passed through our doors have been taught with exactly that principle in mind. After 46 years in business, we may have taught your parents, too—and we hope to carry those same ideals forward for many years to come.