About Us
Our Mission
The mission of the Roland Funeral Home is to serve families, of all faiths, in Christian love.
Our Philosophy
- We are dedicated to assisting each family by providing a deeply meaningful and personal final tribute for their loved one.
- We are honored to care for each loved one entrusted to us.
- It is our hearts' desire to encourage and inspire grief healing through continuing care.
About Roland Funeral Home
Warren Roland married Amy Jo Paul in 1971, and the couple has raised six children: Heidi, James, Burdette, Jr., Buffy Jo, Spencer and Jo Beth, whom intermittently have helped in the family business.
In recent years, since their children have graduated and gone on to college and other vocations, Amy has taken an active part, helping with secretarial work and management. Her heart for grief support and other areas of continuing care has added new dimensions to the funeral service.
Aside from a career in teaching music, their daughter, Heidi, remains involved, assisting in various areas of the funeral business. James has married, is raising a family and has made strides influencing embalming in a village near Kenya, Africa, where he and his family are living as missionaries. Because customs there do not allow for cremation, bodies have been neglected, creating horrible conditions while waiting for the families to be located before burials.
In 2004, the Rolands were pleased to announce improvements and especially planned activities in celebration of their 85th year of service. Highlights included their opening of the old Roland Family Home as a place to hold grief support meetings. The 107-year-old, two-story Victorian home and five acre grounds are often offered as a place for families who need to come in from out of town and are looking for a quiet place to stay while making arrangements and during funeral services. The home place serves as a refuge of soothing, healing, and encouragement to those we are honored to serve.
Rolands look forward annually to "Evenings of Remembrance," celebrations featuring the lives of loved ones whose families they have served during each previous year. The Rolands like to alternate with various churches hosting the celebrations. They have held these programs for three years, with respective ministers taking part, in the Evangelical Free Church, the First United Methodist Church and the Saint Paul Lutheran Church. Support group attendees have shared with the audiences and vocalists and instrumentalists performed holiday and uplifting music as they honored those who have passed on. In connection with the remembrance programs, the funeral home staff annually decorates a revolving memorial tree commemorating loved ones missed at holidays. The tree has been well received in their holiday programs and in Atlantic's Festival of Trees, as well as displayed in the funeral home through the first of the year.
Roland Funeral Service continues offering Grief Support Services facilitated by Dick Krambeck for an adult group, and Heidi Roland for a teen group. They also offer one-on-one counseling provided at no charge to those interested in grief education and support.
In keeping up with the needs of the bereaved, Heidi Jo now adds lovely touches to the services with videos and CDs she creates from photos and favorite background music of the celebrated lives. Heidi puts together family histories and special events creating collections that become lasting family treasures to be passed down to each generation.
Recently added features include the funeral home's website archives that offer an online obituary with the added feature of a guest book. A loved one's obituary may be placed on their internet website where family and friends afar are now able to go on-line, view a selected obituary and sign the corresponding on-line guest book. See their web at www.rolandfuneralservice.com under "Past Obituaries". Another especially well received service is the availability for luncheons to be held in the funeral home facility. Warren and Amy comment, "More and more families we serve are choosing to have dessert coffees and luncheons in our facility. Reception areas seat well over 100, and our building has a nicely supplied kitchen complete with appliances. Rolands are able to serve parties of over 100 throughout their chapels, and/or up to 50 in the public lounge on the lower level. The staff at Rolands is honored to assist families by ordering catering service foods for lunches and coffees, and welcome the use of the facilities at no charge to their customers. Seating is cushioned, pleasant background music is played, table cloths and candle-light combine to provide a soothing atmosphere. Rolands welcome the use of our well-equipped kitchen.
Rolands have also added a gift of photos of the funeral floral bouquets with names of the senders printed beneath, casket bearers attending the committals, and when interested, they add miscellaneous pictures capturing special moments to be remembered.
Rolands offer new, lower priced services expanding their spectrum to allow for a wider range of budgets. "Our reflection of the past is one of gratitude and inspiration," says Warren and Amy Jo, "to remain dedicated with quality and personal service.