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Business & Tech

Rumors of Schantz Funeral Home Closing Greatly Exaggerated

Horace W. Schantz Funeral Home in Emmaus taken over by carekeeper Dustin Grim.

Not long ago, readers of The Morning Call opened to the legal advertisement page, where they saw a notice that in Emmaus was closing.

True, but not totally correct.

Horace W. Schantz Funeral Home, opened at Third and Main streets since 1945, was to be no more.

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But Schantz Funeral Home, P.C. (Professional Corporation), run by long-time employee Dustin M. Grim, would continue Horace’s long tradition of serving the public’s funeral needs at the same location.

"A lot of people were thrown off by that legal notice," said Grim, 35. "Other newspapers have called me about it.

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"I’ve been working at the funeral home since 2001. I purchased the business and plan to continue to run the daily operations with the dignity and respect that the Schantz family has run it."

Horace Schantz, who graduated from in 1936 and Perkiomen Prep in 1937, attended University of Wisconsin’s college of mortuary science. He returned to Emmaus after World War II, and worked 40 years in the funeral business.

In 1986, H. Walker Schantz III, Horace’s son, bought the business and ran it until his retirement in July 2011. Walker, in retirement, will continue to help serve families in their time of need.

Grim, who grew up in Kutztown, also has a long record in the funeral home business. Originally a surgical technician at Reading Hospital, he decided to get into the "people business," which is what the funeral field really is.

He attended Kutztown University and then Northampton Community College to get his credits for the funeral home business.

The funeral home responds to 130 to 140 calls per year, some spread out and others bunched, he said.

"Our policy has always been to serve each family, one at a time, with individual  caring attention," Grim wrote on the Schantz web site.

Grim and his wife, Andrea, lived in the Emmaus funeral home for about five years, but then they bought a home in Emmaus, where they are raising Matthew, 3 ½.

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