BUSINESS OF THE WEEK: Townsend-Wood Funeral Chapel
Apr 16, 2018The person he hired right out of mortuary school in 2002 continues to carry on the business’ reputation.“Steve hired me as a resident and kept me on as a funeral director. He taught me everything I know,” Garth McKee said about Steve Wood, who died unexpectedly in 2006. “He was famous for ensuring that he took care of every aspect of every detail, and making sure families were taken care of first before anything else.”To the best of his knowledge, McKee said, Townsend-Wood can trace it roots to 1918, when it was called Thayer and Waldo Funeral Directors, Undertakers and Embalmers. Archie Thayer was the funeral director and Theron Waldo the financial partner.After going out on his own in the early 1920s, Thayer ran Thayer Funeral Chapel for decades with his son, who died in the 1950s. With his own health declining, Thayer sold the business to George Townsend sometime in the late 1960s.Steve Wood came to the business as a partner in the late 1970s and bought it from Townsend a short time later — but kept the name Townsend-Wood. The business is now corporately owned by Houston-based Service Corporation International and operated under the Dignity Memorial brand.Wood, a Schuyler County native who lived in Watkins Glen before moving to Penn Yan, was a talented musician and organist who taught music in the Bath school district before graduating from Simmons Mortuary School in Syracuse. After acquiring Townsend-Wood in 1980, he bought Haughey-Wood Funeral Home in Watkins Glen in 1981 and Bottoni-Wood Funeral Home in Prattsburgh in 1993.“Steve was quite the funeral director,” McKee said. “Many local funeral directors got their start in the business by working for Steve.”That includes McKee, another Simmons graduate who is now the location manager at Townsend-Wood and Haughey-Wood. He lives in Watkins Glen.A native of Canisteo, Steuben County, McKee worked at Hillside Cemetery in Canisteo while he was in high school; his father did monument work. McKee later worked for Kmart, b... (Finger Lakes Times)
