By Tricia Pursell
Lessons on caring, of faith and on the value of life are what have inspired local funeral directors to continue the tradition of their fathers.
For one 22-year-old daughter of a funeral director, it was her father’s example that instilled the passion inside her to pursue the same career.
“It was never a job to him,” said Nicole Hummel, daughter of Bruce Hummel, owner of Hummel Funeral Home in Middleburg and The V.L. Seebold Funeral Home in Selinsgrove.
Nicole is a recent graduate of business school at Penn State, and will begin at Simmons Institute of Funeral Service in New York — her father’s alma mater — in the fall. Upon graduation, she plans to join him in the business.
Bruce began with a residency at The V.L. Seebold Funeral Home in Selinsgrove in 1973 and went on to buy out the Hassinger Funeral Home in Middleburg in 1986 and then Seebold’s in 1996.
“I always wanted to do it,” said Bruce, who is also currently serving as the Snyder County Coroner. “It intrigued me.”
“The business was almost like a part of our family, and I’ve always admired him for the fact he was someone who was very passionate for the right reasons, for wanting to be there and helping people,” Nicole said. “He tried to instill in us that it was a service and was a privilege to be able to do that.”
He also taught her the value of faith — her foundation for the career.
“If you keep that as the center of your life and what you’re doing, there are so many opportunities for success,” she said.
Gary Cronrath, former director of the Gary H. Cronrath Funeral Home Inc., with locations in Watsontown and Lewisburg, is the son of the late Paul E. Cronrath, a first-generation funeral director who began the business in his parents’ half double house in 1937.
“A couple of friends of his parents in Watsontown saw the need for a more progressive funeral home in Watsontown in the 1930s,” Cronrath said, “and mentioned to Dad it would be a good opportunity for him. Dad did it.”
After Paul graduated from Eckel’s mortuary school in Philadelphia, he returned to the area and apprenticed under Paul Grittner — “a very good funeral director and a very fine person,” Gary said. “He taught Dad a lot of things about funeral service, and about life in general.”
As a boy growing up in a funeral home, Gary experienced some things that not many children do.
“When there was a funeral downstairs, we couldn’t run or walk around upstairs because the floors would creak,” he said. He also remembers riding with his dad in the hearse during trips to Evangelical Community Hospital.
“A lot of good memories,” he said.
But Gary did not always plan to follow in his father’s footsteps.
“When I was in college, I thought I wanted to be a veterinarian,” he said. He went on to earn a bachelor’s degree in business administration, served in the Navy, and then, he said, “I saw a calling for funeral service.”
He graduated in 1964 from a mortuary school in San Francisco, where he was offered a teaching position. “I turned it down because I wanted to be a funeral director,” he said.
His father’s business was not enough to support two families, so he bought out a funeral home in Lewisburg, owned then by Glenn Dornsife, in 1967. He stayed there for almost 40 years, and also operated the Cronrath Funeral Home in Watsontown.
Grenoble’s bought the business in March 2007.
“I was very lucky,” said Gary. “We served two very nice towns with wonderful people. I couldn’t have scripted it any better.”
Christine L. Garman serves as the president of the George P. Garman Funeral Home Inc., with locations in Mount Pleasant Mills and Liverpool. Her cousin, Kenneth Ronald Ebling, is the funeral director.
George was her father, who took over for his father, Palmer R. Garman, who took over for his father, Adam Garman, who founded the business in 1906.
“It’s all in the family,” Christine said. Her nephew, Adam Shaffer, is working out of a funeral home in Carlisle.
Christine is a retired registered nurse and director of nursing for Nottingham Village and the former Mansion Nursing Home. After her father’s untimely death in 1990 at the age of 63, she said the decision was made to keep the funeral homes in the family.
“That’s a decision that I’ve never regretted,” she said. “We’re just serving the folks that we love. It’s a real people business. My late father was a real people person.”
“I saw my father helping people at a very sad time in the community’s lives,” she added.
Sometimes, because of the demands of the job, Christine said he had to miss her functions at high school.
“That was before cell phones,” she said.
As a retired registered nurse, Christine said, “This is an extension of my nursing career.”
It was her grandfather who helped her to realize this.
“Palmer Garman inspired me that nursing was similar and that we would be helping people at a difficult time. I found that as a nice beginning point.”
Two brothers are just beginning the third generation to operate the Shaw Funeral Home in Milton, which was established in 1954 by their grandfather, John H. Shaw, whose son, Terry Shaw, bought the business in 1981.
Terry retired last year, when his sons, David M. and Thomas R. Shaw, bought the business from him. Thomas is serving as the supervisor and has worked at the funeral home for the past 15 years. David has been there for 11 years.
Their uncle and Terry’s brother, John H. Shaw III, began a funeral home in Lewisburg in 1968.
While Thomas always knew he wanted to be a funeral director and dove right into the business after mortuary school, David said he went to college and worked at another job for a few years.
“I was very unhappy with my work,” he said. He joined his dad, and the rest is history.
“I lived in a funeral home since I was 3 years old,” David said. “It’s the only thing that I knew. It’s second-nature to us. It’s a very satisfying job.”
Thomas has a 16-year-old son, but there are no plans in the works to make sure he takes over as the fourth-generation Shaw to run the funeral home.
“Our job is never forced into doing,” David said. “It has to be something you choose to do. It’s a very demanding and time-consuming job, and you have to be dedicated to it.”
