David Mitchell honored by Chamber with lifetime achievement award

Photos by Tom Rivers: David Mitchell is shown last week by a photo from 2012 showing David with his father Rho and David’s son Josh. All three chose funeral directors as their career. David joined his father in the business  in 1984.

Mitchell has worked as local funeral director for 40 years

ALBION – As a kid, David Mitchell often joined his father Rho at Christopher Mitchell Funeral Homes in Holley and Albion.

David would mow the lawn, washed cars and helped around the funeral homes. He grew up thinking he would pursue a career as a police officer. Mitchell thought that job was a great way to serve the community and help people.

But he realized following his father as a funeral director also met that goal of service. Mitchell was 21 and was doing a residency in Rochester to become a funeral director. Mitchell said he has always preferred to be a person in the background, making sure everything is in order and tended to, while also making sure a family’s needs are being met.

He was at a service when a family went out of their way to thank you for his attention to all the details.

“That was a moment when the light bulb went off, and confirmed that I do want to do this,” Mitchell during an interview last week in Albion.

He joined his father in 1984 at Christopher Mitchell, and has upgraded both the Albion and Holley sites. David’s son Josh joined the business in 2012, making it three generations of Mitchells in the funeral service.

David Mitchell was honored in November 2018 by the Cobblestone Museum with “The Pullman Award” in appreciation of Mitchell donating a couch made by George Pullman in the 1850s. Mitchell acquired the couch when he purchased the Merrill-Grinnell Funeral Home in Albion. Mitchell wanted the couch to stay in the community and be displayed for the public to enjoy. George Pullman was a furniture manufacturer in Albion before he moved to Chicago and developed the Pullman’s Palace Cars for the railroad industry.

Christopher Mitchell in recent years has expanded and acquired funeral homes in Middleport (Bates, Wallace & Heath Funeral Home) and Gasport (Sherrie Bream & Kenneth H. Sherrie Funeral Home). Last year Mitchell announced a partnership with Cooper Funeral Homes in Medina, with Cooper owner Jake Hebdon becoming a part owner with Christopher Mitchell.

Hebdon joins Josh Mitchell in ensuring local ownership and leadership of the funeral homes for many years to come. The business has been rebranded as Mitchell Family Cremations & Funerals.

David isn’t going anywhere, anytime soon. He remains the full-time leader of Christopher Mitchell. The Orleans County Chamber of Commerce will honor him with a “Lifetime Achievement Award” on Oct. 17 during the annual Chamber awards banquet.

Mitchell said he appreciates the award, and is grateful for a long career in his home community, working with so many families.

“Ninety-nine percent of this job is dealing with the living,” Mitchell said. “You treat them with the utmost respect and care. You treat each family the best you can as if they are your own.”

When he started in 1984, Christopher Mitchell was doing about 90 funerals a year. That is now about 400 a year at the five funeral homes.

Christopher Mitchell has eight full-time employees who Mitchell said are instrumental in the business’s success. He noted Paula Fuller has worked as funeral director with Christopher Mitchell for 30 years, and Scott Schmidt has been there for 26 years. Mitchell also said the late Lee Minier was a big contributor to Christopher Mitchell, helping it grow during his tenure from 1992 to 2007.

David’s father Rho passed away in 2015, and he was active in many community organizations. David has followed his father’s example serving with the Albion Lions Club, Holley Rotary Club and on the boards for several organizations. Christopher Mitchell also donates and sponsors numerous events and causes in the community.

‘The community has been good to us and I’d like to believe we’re good to the community,” Mitchell said.

Christopher Mitchell recently was recognized for the ninth year in a row with the National Funeral Directors Association Pursuit of Excellence Award, which is given to funeral homes that deliver extraordinary service while adhering to the highest ethical and professional standards. Mitchell said the recognition goes to the top 1 percent funeral homes out of more than 11,000.

Christopher Mitchell values traditional funeral services, and also embrace modern technology to serve families, including video tributes, live-streaming services, and jewelry or other mementos with fingerprints of loved ones.

“We’re always out trying to learn new ideas and techniques,” David Mitchell said. “It’s all about connecting with the families.”