The Chelsea Standard
A Heritage Newspaper
Weekly Publication
'Credit to community' ran local funeral home
By Sheila Pursglove, Special Writer
PUBLISHED: January 11, 2007
Chelsea's New Year started on a sad note, with the passing of a local legend - George L. Staffan, who died Jan. 1 at his cabin in Luzerne, Mich., at the age of 95.
Advertisement
He was laid to rest last Friday in Mt, Olivet Cemetery after services at the Staffan-Mitchell Funeral Home in Chelsea, the business founded in 1853 by Staffan's grandfather, Frank.
"He was a lifelong true friend," said Staffan's cousin, John Keusch. "He was a real credit to his family and community."
Staffan – who as a boy of 13 dragged caskets up the stairs of the old building on Main Street, now Merkel's Home Furnishings, not only continued the family business – taking it over in 1950 – he went on to become the oldest living funeral director in Michigan. He sold his business to John and Gloria Mitchell in 1981.
"We were not wealthy, we sold our farm in Rochester, took what we had and used it as a down payment and that was OK with George L.," said John Mitchell Sr.
"He made it possible to buy the business beyond dollars and cents. That is why we will carry the Staffan name. He and Kathryn have been very kind to us. It was a wonderful relationship."
Mitchell said his relationship with "GL" was like father-son, and called Staffan "the fairest, kindest person."
"I guess it was his honesty and his kindness that stood out," he said. "Not just to Gloria and I, but to the community, and he was a very kind, dedicated funeral director."
In a 2003 article celebrating the 150th anniversary of the Staffan-Mitchell Funeral Home, the Mitchells wrote that, in the early days of the funeral home, families came to Frank Staffan primarily for him to build caskets. Funerals were usually held in homes or churches. In the article, George L. Staffan recalled his grandfather's funeral home was a place to store supplies such as a horse-drawn hearse, caskets, a mobile organ, or a "cooling board"— a giant metal tub filled with ice and a board on which to lay the deceased — a precursor to embalming.
George P. Staffan carried on Frank's legacy in the funeral home and in the community, and became Chelsea's youngest president at the age of 21. George L. Staffan said his father was responsible for paving the streets of the village and building nearly half a dozen of the town's buildings, including the former Sylvan Town Hall. In a Chelsea Standard article in 2004, Staffan noted the paving of Main Street was only meant to accommodate horse traffic but seemed to hold up well after the advent of the automobile.
As a boy, Staffan was a star athlete at Chelsea High School, who went by the nickname "Abe" – he got the monicker as he shared his Feb. 12 birthday with Abraham Lincoln and was given the middle name Lincoln.
A "Chelsea Reminiscing" item in a Dec. 2003 issue of The Chelsea Standard noted that in 1928 the CHS boys' basketball team swamped Dexter 40-20, with "Abe" Staffan, "Fritz" Steiner, "Arn" Fahrner all contributing "to showing Dexter some real basketball."
Staffan followed his father and grandfather into the funeral business in 1950, and raised his family in the funeral home.
He also started Chelsea's first ambulance service, using his hearse to transport injured people to the hospital. The Staffan-Mitchell Funeral Home has letters in its archives, from people expressing gratitude for a safe ride to the hospital.
Staffan gave back to the local community by serving on the Chelsea Village Council, and as a member of the local Kiwanis.
He and his wife, Kathryn, also helped the Chelsea District Library take shape when they agreed to move their Orchard Street home one lot over to allow the historic redbrick McKune House on Main Street – willed to Chelsea as a public library by Catherine Staffan McKune – to renovate and expand.
"The expansion of the library would not have beenpossible without thegenerosity of the Staffans," said Library Director Cathy Russ. "It never ceases to amaze me that they werewilling to move their home -which probably causedthem great inconveniencefor a lengthy period of time-to allow the library tobecome what it istoday. Mr. Staffan was always very modest about thegenerosity of thisgesture.
"Whenever I met him, Mr. Staffan had a twinkle in hiseye and a great interest in the progress of the construction. His contribution to the Chelsea community is immense, as was his generosity of spirit and kindness."
In 2004, Staffan and other family members and friends enjoyed the dedication of the building at 120 S. Main Street in Chelsea. Staffan's father built the structure in 1898 and ran a grocery store there for many years. The structure, now housing the River Gallery, bears a commemorative bronze plaque.
Mitchell said that Staffan helped people not only in death, but in living – many times behind the scenes and with little fanfare. "It was the quiet things to help people," Mitchell said.
"He was generous to a fault and with high professional standards."
Sheila Pursglove is a freelance writer. She can be reached at bingley51@yahoo.com.
Not all stories are guaranteed to appear
online. The Web edition contains a reasonable
sampling of the print edition stories.
For the most complete news coverage, we invite you to
subscribe
to the print edition of the paper.
Expanded
Web
Coverage
TOP JOBS
