Funeral home has new family

For the Penrods, life really has come full circle.
In 1983, Todd Penrod graduated from mortuary school and began working at Portland’s Williamson and Spencer Funeral Home.
Twenty-two years later, his son, Rob, followed the same path.
The business has been intertwined through their lives. And soon, it will be their life’s work.
On Jan. 1, the Penrods will take over ownership of Williamson and Spencer from long-time proprietors Don and Jane Spencer.
“It didn’t come up all of a sudden,” said Todd, who said he had always had the idea of buying the business in the back of his mind. “I thought that things may come together when Rob decided to go to mortuary school. … It was going to happen someday. We were really looking forward to doing this ...”
The Penrods were presented with the opportunity to buy Williamson and Spencer early in 2011 after Don and Jane decided they were ready to retire. The sale has been in the works ever since.
It will become official on New Year’s Day as Todd retires from the Jay County Sheriff’s Department to join Rob, who has been working at Williamson and Spencer full time since 2005.
Don, who’ll be 68 next month, said he it is time to retire after 37 years in the funeral business in Jay County. He said he and Jane are looking forward to some quality time with their three grandsons, and the granddaughter that is expected to arrive in January.
“We’re looking forward to having more time with them,” said Don, while noting and his son Nate will still be available to help the Penrods during busy times just as Todd has helped him over theyears. “We’ll enjoy our family that we haven’t done maybe as much as we should have the last 25 years.
“We want to do a little more traveling. … We want to take some trips and get away, because this business, it’s tough to get away when you’re here in charge.”
When the Spencers decided they were ready to sell, the Penrods were a natural fit.
Don said he made a mistake 22 years ago when he let Todd get away to join the sheriff’s department. And now he’s happy to take advantage of the chance to correct that error.
He also said it was important to him to sell Williamson and Spencer to someone local, and that the Penrods are just the kind of high-character people he wants to have running the business his family has been a part of since 1906.
“The main thing we appreciate is really nothing is going to change,” said Don. “It’s going to be the same tradition we’ve had here for years and years. ...
“We want it to succeed. That’s why we wanted to sell it to someone locally instead of a corporation. We appreciate the friendship we’ve had with all of the clients we’ve had in the past and we wanted to keep it so that it would be locally run by local people who know people.”
Todd moved to the county he now calls home during his teenage years, and graduated from Jay County High School in 1979. Four years later he graduated from Mid-America College of Funeral Service in Jeffersonville and began work at Williamson and Spencer.
He and his wife, Joni, who is the athletics secretary at JCHS, moved into the home next door, at 211, W. High St. That’s the home they brought Rob home to when he was born in 1985.
“And now I’ve got a son of my own in that house,” said Rob, who now lives there with his wife Lexie and 1-year-old son Jacoby. “It’s just come full circle.”
Rob said he had an interest in the business at an early age, and still has a name tag that Don made for him when he was about 6 years old. He also recalls doing a report about working in the funeral home while he was in junior high.
During his junior and senior years in high school he worked part time at Williamson and Spencer, so mortuary school at Mid-America was a natural fit after he graduated from JCHS in 2003.
For father and son, the draw to the business is the same.
“I think it’s because we get to be able to help people at one of the most difficult times of their life,” said Rob, whose thoughts were echoed by his father moments later. “We’re able to help them out and walk them through it.”
Both Todd and Rob refer to Don as a great teacher who helped them both learn the business. They plan on keeping the Williamson and Spencer name, with the possibility of adding their own names to the moniker sometime down the road.
And they said they hope to follow the example Don has set for them.
“I think one of the biggest things I’ve learned from him is he has a heart of gold,” said Todd. “It doesn’t matter financially how you are. He treats everybody the same. … That’s important to me. I want to continue that.”
Father and son agreed it’s a special opportunity to get to run a family business in their hometown. In fact, they wouldn’t have wanted to do it anywhere else.
And they’re equally excited about the opportunity to be in business together.
“I think it’ll be great,” said Rob. “We get along great …
“We think more or less alike … and we don’t have to tell each other what to do because one of us is usually already doing it.”
Todd said he’s looking forward not only to running Williamson and Spencer with his son, but also the possibility of it becoming a long-time family operation like it has for the Spencers.
“I think that would be an awesome thing for our family, for us to have this opportunity to continue on the tradition,” said Todd. “We have a grandson already and I’m sure we’ll have more grandchildren as the years go by. We’re definitely not going to push it on them, but it would be great if we could continue the tradition and have my grandchildren continue the tradition.”[[In-content Ad]]