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David Parker: McInnis & Holloway — greater than a century of dignity within the funeral enterprise

Printed Jun 20, 2023  •  Final up to date 17 minutes in the past  •  3 minute learn

Jeff Hagel and his father Ernie Hagel of McInnis & Holloway. Picture by Picture equipped by McInnis and Holloway.

Calgary was included as a city in 1884 and fewer than 20 years later a funeral house began that also continues in that enterprise at present beneath the identify of McInnis & Holloway Funeral Properties.

Cyril Holloway joined the Shaver agency in 1935; the next yr is when Alfred J. McInnis grew to become an worker.

When Shaver handed away in 1942 the corporate was bought by McInnis and Holloway, however after Holloway died in 1977 it was bought to Artwork Johnson, Ken Schmelke, Marg Schroeder and Bob Campbell.

Ernie Hagel buy Johnson’s shares in 1980 and that yr took over as president of the corporate.

Hagel began his funeral service profession right here in 1968 when he started his employment with Fosters Funeral Chapel, working as an apprentice funeral director. He obtained his embalming license in 1970.

He moved along with his younger household to Olds after buying shares in Mountain View Funeral Residence however moved again to Calgary in 1980, promoting his Mountain View shares to spend money on McInnis & Holloway.

That very same yr, it acquired the Chapel of the Bells on Centre Road North, fully redecorated it and added a crematorium the next yr.

The corporate continued to broaden with the opening of its Park Memorial Chapel on Elbow Drive S.W. in 1984; it bought Airdrie Funeral Residence in 1991; and, in 1994 it opened Crowfoot Funeral Chapel and Fish Creek Funeral Chapel.

One of the crucial important impacts over its lengthy 120-year historical past was the initiation of the McInnis & Holloway Memorial Forest program as a dwelling tribute that may be visited by households and buddies yr after yr. Launched in 1996 with the Fish Creek Memorial Forest — and an preliminary planting of 500 bushes by McInnis & Holloway workers, volunteers and their households — this system has since seen virtually 58,000 bushes planted in Calgary and space.

Plantings have taken place in Shaw Meadows, Lafarge Meadows and Burnside in Calgary, and in Fletcher Park in Airdrie and Massive Hill Springs Memorial Forest. The most recent venue is within the Ann and Sandy Cross Conservation Space.

In the meantime, growth has continued with the opening of Eastside Memorial Chapel and additional funding was made with the acquisition of the Petro Canada fuel station throughout from Chapel of the Bells and so much north of Fish Creek Chapel to supply the ever-increasing want for parking.

Ernie’s son Jeff joined the agency in 2007, after working outdoors of the funeral career following commencement from Mount Royal College with an utilized diploma in small enterprise and entrepreneurship and a diploma in worldwide enterprise. He went again to Mount Royal to take its funeral director certificates and obtained his funeral director and embalmers licenses in Edmonton.

That yr, the Park Memorial Chapel’s concourse was transformed right into a hospitality centre and the next yr McInnis & Holloway opened its Cochrane Funeral Residence.

Jeff Hagel and Janine Altamirano — secretary treasurer of McInnis & Holloway and likewise holding a funeral director’s license in Alberta — had been named companions of the agency in 2011.

In 2019, Jeff — following in his father’s footsteps —was appointed president of the corporate.

He says that COVID-19 actually impacted funeral service as we knew it, however his precedence was to make sure every household was given choices for providers that at occasions had been decreased to 10 attendees, complicating the grieving course of. Nonetheless, the restrictions resulted in new choices equivalent to live-streaming funerals, permitting distant participation from household and buddies unable to journey.

McInnis & Holloway have invested a lot on this metropolis and space with persevering with renovations to its properties and buying others, the newest being when Heritage Funeral Residence grew to become a brand new member of the corporate, renamed as McInnis & Holloway Heritage Location.

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David Parker seems often within the Herald. Learn his columns on-line at calgaryherald.com/enterprise. He will be reached at 403-830-4622 or by e mail at [email protected]

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