Lynch & Sons grows steadily in world of big funeral chains
By Andrew Dietderich
September 16, 2002
Thomas Lynch, president of Lynch & Sons Funeral Directors, is to the funeral business what a country doctor is to the medical profession. Lynch resides in the community that his family business serves. He's available by phone day and night to help the bereaved. And he mingles with merchants and families in Milford, not because he's looking for business, but because he said it's right to be involved in the lives of neighbors. That community involvement and attention to custom services is what Lynch said he believes sets Lynch & Sons apart from national funeral-home chains that dot the Detroit landscape.
"It was different when you went to see Dr. Clark rather than going to Willow Wood Health Clinic," Lynch said. "The difference is there is no Willow Wood, it might be a public or privately held corporation with each member enjoying a level of corporate cover. Here, there is no corporate cover. If something is done wrong here, I'm accountable for it."
The path chosen by Lynch & Sons has worked for Lynch and his five siblings in the business as the company continues to grow. The family just bought a fifth funeral home in Oxford, and a third generation of Lynches is entering the field. Lynch & Sons posts annual revenue of about $5 million through the 1,000 funerals it handles a year, Lynch said. The company has locations in Clawson, Milford, Plymouth and Walled Lake. The company provides funeral-arrangement services, which include coordinating ceremonies and helping families buy coffins, monuments and burial vaults.
"One hundred percent of people who are born die," said Lynch, who has written several books related to dealing with death and is an adjunct professor of creative writing at the University of Michigan. "What are we going to do about it? This is the basic question that keeps us in business."
The company's history dates from 1948, when founder Ed Lynch graduated from Wayne State University as a licensed funeral director. He worked at several metro Detroit funeral homes until 1974, when Lynch and his wife, Rosemary, purchased the Richardson-Bird Funeral Home locations in Milford and Walled Lake. Lynch & Sons was founded in 1978 when Ed and his three sons - Tom, Patrick and Timothy - along with his son-in-law Michael Howell opened a third location in Clawson. In 1991, Patrick Lynch and Michael Howell bought the Schrader Funeral Home of Plymouth and renamed it the Schrader-Howell Funeral Home. Lynch said the family takes great pride in having survived a period during the 1980s and 1990s when companies like Houston-based Service Corp. International (NYSE: SRV) - which owns more than 3,100 funeral homes, cemeteries and crematoria in the United States, France and South America - went on acquisition sprees. Service Corp. International runs 11 previously family-owned funeral homes in Southeast Michigan.
"You can look at funeral homes in Oakland County and in Michigan where the name on the sign is in no way related to the people with whom you'll be dealing," Lynch said. "Those people have retired or resigned or their employment contracts haven't been renewed, and the company that manages the funeral home is in Texas or Louisiana or Canada. It just doesn't work in our line of work."
Greg Bolton, director of corporate communications at Service Corp. International, said the funeral-home company has grown by offering good value to the funeral homes it buys and the communities it enters.
The larger chains, he said, have greater resources than smaller family businesses have to spend on their funeral homes. Service Corp. International also has a systematic approach to training all employees and keeping them updated on new regulations. In some cases, larger funeral-home companies can help family members obtain lower airfares through special deals the company has with some airlines, Bolton said. And funerals prearranged in one funeral home in one state easily can be transferred to another funeral home in another state. Still, said Thomas Lynch, Lynch & Sons has made a name for itself by doing what it always has done best: becoming part of the community in which its funeral homes are located. For example, the Milford location is tucked in a neighborhood surrounded by turn-of-the-century homes. Thomas Lynch, who lived in the Milford funeral home when the family first bought it in 1974, lives across the street. Lynch said he often meets with other businessmen and women in the community for coffee and neighborly conversation.
"I just came from the morning coffee I've been having with guys in this town for 25 years," Lynch said. "I've buried people in those families, and I live in this neighborhood. It's not as if they come to me for a funeral, and then I don't see them again."
Lynch said the family is willing to accommodate special requests, too. For example, when a woman who was a popular gardener in Milford died, the home allowed the garden club to convert a viewing area into a garden room by bringing in plants and garden-related items. Another time, a family wanted to create its own wood urn. Lynch allowed it instead of trying to sell a more expensive one. William Price, owner of Troy-based Price Funeral Home, said that because of the high level of service provided by the Lynch family, he holds them in high esteem.
"They really are a credit to the funeral-service business," Price said. "I've worked with them for years, and they always conduct themselves in a professional manner.
"They follow the true meaning of providing a funeral service to families and aren't just trying to run a business."
Today, of the six sons and three daughters Ed and Rosemary Lynch had, seven work in one of the five funeral homes operated by the family. Tom, 53, is the funeral director in Milford; Patrick, 52, in Clawson; Timothy, 50, in Walled Lake and Oxford; and Michael Howell, 51, in Plymouth. Timothy Lynch Sr. and his wife, Jennifer, said they bought the Bossardet Funeral Home in Oxford on June 29 because of their children, Tim Jr., Kevin and Katie, all recently graduated from the Wayne State University mortuary program. He didn't want to disclose the purchase price. He said the Bossardet family wanted to sell to them because of the value the Lynch family puts on community.
"They didn't have a generation to keep operating the home but knew they wanted to sell to a family that would move into the community and become a new neighbor, not just a new business," Lynch said. "That's how we have always operated, and our labor force is expanding, so it was a perfect fit."
Andrew Dietderich: (313) 446-0315, adietderich@crain.com
