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by dan mccann for heafey hoffmann dworak
& cutler mortuaries
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n January 2016, flames and an explosion devastated Heafey Hoffmann Dworak & Cutler Mortuaries’ main office, a fixture at 7805 West Center Road since 1980. • A family-owned business, there in times of grief, was now facing its own challenge and with it, a choice — wallow in “Why us?” or let the human spirit do its thing. • Before the smoke cleared, the answer was apparent: pick up, dust off, move forward. There were mourning families to serve, a temporary location to find and a move to make. There was a main office to rebuild and a drive to bring it back bigger and better. In short, there was work to do and a tradition dating to the 1850s to continue. • Now, less than two years after the fire, Heafey Hoffmann Dworak & Cutler is on the cusp of introducing the public to a state-of-the-art mortuary that will serve the community for generations to come. • With progress comes tremendous gratitude. “The community was there for us,” said co-owner Bill Cutler III. Being there for others is what they do — the funeral directors at Heafey Hoffmann Dworak & Cutler have a combined 200 years of experience. And it is what Omahans do as a community, reaching out with kind words and thoughtful gestures. The result is a poignant reminder: though fire can bring down walls and destroy equipment, it also can strengthen resolve and illuminate a longstanding tradition of community support.
OPEN HOUSE WEEKEND Heafey Hoffmann Dworak & Cutler Mortuaries is putting the finishing touches on its new building. The public is invited to enjoy refreshments and tour the space at 7805 West Center Road from 2 to 4 p.m. Oct. 7 and 1 to 4 p.m. Oct. 8.
Cutler: Response was instant, overwhelming by dan mccann for heafey hoffmann dworak
As a boy, Bill Cutler III would walk by his family’s mortuary on the way to and from school, certain that someday he would follow in his father’s footsteps. “I’ve been blessed in my career, because all I ever wanted to do is what I’m doing Bill Cutler III today. I worked with my father; I grew up around our funeral home. For me, it’s not a job. I’ve always enjoyed what I’ve done,” Cutler said. Over the course of almost five decades, Cutler has built a reputation for caring and dedicated support during many, many dark hours. When the community had a chance to reciprocate during Heafey Hoffmann Dworak & Cutler’s own time of need, the response was instant and overwhelming. Q: What has life been like in the months since the fire? A: When our building was completely gutted by fire, we moved to one of our other locations right away for a couple of months. Initially, that was a challenge until we got our temporary (main) location built at 121st and Center. Along the way, we really didn’t encounter any other difficulties. Everybody helped us. I can’t describe how good the community has been to us over this year-and-a-half of rebuilding. It just represents what a great heartland we’re privileged to live in. Q: The mortuary is there for people in times of need. Now the tables were turned a bit. Elaborate on the community support that came back to you. A: The community was there for us, no doubt. All of the families we had previously served were really encouraging, and then there was the kindness shown to us by the families we were serving when
& cutler mortuaries
the fire occurred. They were just marvelous, so kind and so understanding. … We got the impression that people knew we would do the right thing, and we certainly tried to honor their expectations. Q: How has your team adapted over the months? A: Everybody has stepped up and done the hard work necessary to keep operating. The one thing about funeral service is – you can’t plan ahead. I was taught from the very beginning when people have a death, their world stops and they don’t care about our schedule nor should they. We’re here to provide the service they need on the timeline they need it. That’s the way we’ve always operated. Q: Was there ever any doubt that you would come back bigger and better? A: No. As Tom Heafey and my son, Bill, and I watched the building burn, we knew we would rebuild at 78th and Center. No alternatives were ever discussed. It’s going to be a better facility. I just know the public is going to like what we’ve done. Q: What message would you like to send to those who’ve reached out with kind words and more? A: We’re so grateful and so thankful. They’re the ones that really kept us going. The difficulties we thought we might have, we didn’t experience. We really don’t have anything to complain about. It could have been a whole lot worse. It could have been a real disaster. We’re grateful that everybody was able to get out of the burning building. The real heroes in this whole ordeal were the first responders. They are just unbelievable people who not only got the fire out but then got the deceased out later that afternoon.
Cards, messages reflect community’s caring heart compiled by dan mccann for heafey hoffmann dworak
& cutler mortuaries
First graders at St. Stephen the Martyr School were among those sending well-wishes to the staff at Heafey Hoffmann Dworak & Cutler Mortuaries after the devastating January 2016 fire. They drew lots of rainbows — a reminder that turbulence often can give rise to something beautiful. “You are not alone,” wrote one child. “Keep hoping and helping.” “God will be with you.” “You can make it again. I hope it will be even better.” “Everybody cares about you and it’s OK to cry.” The sweet sentiments were accompanied by equally sweet drawings: a heart creature with hug-ready arms, a collection of crosses, the occasional baseball and those colorful rainbows. “They sent us this big envelope of encouragement. It was heartwarming and just unbelievable to think they would take the time to do it. It brought a smile to all of our faces,” said Bill Cutler III, funeral director and mortuary co-owner. From the students’ teacher, Rose Fitch, a beautifully handwritten note: “The whole community feels the shock of this tragic event. Please be encouraged by the things the fire could not destroy — the dignity you gave to the deceased and the respect and compassion that you showed to every individual who walked into your establishment.” The notes from St. Stephen’s will be framed and displayed in the new building. They are just a glimpse into the encouragement and shows of support that Heafey Hoffmann Dworak & Cutler received after the fire from grateful families, assisted living residents, hospice workers, newspapers and local colleges. Churches throughout the city offered the use of their facilities, and funeral directors offered their assistance. “Anything we can do, please ask,” was a common theme. “You will rise from the ashes,” was another. From a family who lost two sons in less than two years: “Thank you and your wonderful staff for your years of service to our community. We stand by you during this tragic time and look forward to seeing the construction of the new building. Wishing you all happy beginnings!” “We received so many cards, emails and phone calls. And the food! People brought in so much food,” recalled Karen Callaghan, Cutler’s assistant. They also continued to bring their business, finding their way to the mortuaries’ temporary, tucked-away site at 121st Street and West Center Road. “We were concerned because our main location no longer existed,” Cutler said. “We were going into a temporary space that was wonderful and spacious and well done — but it was not visible from Center Street. It had zero curb appeal. The fact that all of our clientele stayed with us and supported us is really a tribute to them.” And a testament to the mortuary’s ingrained place in the Omaha community — temporary location or not. “Our firm has been around since 1882,” Cutler said. “The Heafey family, the Hoffmann family, the Dworak family and the Cutler family all have long-term commitments to the heartland.”
HEAFEY HOFFMANN DWORAK & CUTLER: GRATEFUL AND DEDICATED TO COMMUNITY
FROM DEVASTATING FIRE SPRINGS TREMENDOUS GRATITUDE
HEAFEY HOFFMANN DWORAK & CUTLER: A PROUD TRADITION OF SERVICE
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Heafey Hoffmann Dworak & Cutler’s original West Center Chapel was destroyed by fire in January 2016. A rebuilt, expanded chapel is set to open next month.
Rooted in Nebraska, Iowa by todd von kampen for heafey hoffmann dworak
& cutler mortuaries eep traditions of compassion and sensitivity anchor the rebuilt and expanded Heafey Hoffmann Dworak & Cutler funeral home set to open next month at 78th Street and West Center Road. The stories of its principals encompass more than a century and a third on both sides of the Missouri River. When one includes the family histories of the firm’s predecessors, that total rises to nearly 175 years in the funeral business. Omaha had just over 30,000 people in 1880 when George Brewer co-founded the Brewer and Sullivan Mortuary on South 25th Street. Six years later, that site was included in the new city of South Omaha, based around the once-mighty Union Stockyards. Omaha annexed South Omaha in 1915. Two years after Brewer set up his funeral home, Irish-born brothers Patrick C. Heafey and Morgan J. Heafey started the undertaker firm that marks its 135th anniversary this year. Heafey & Heafey, originally at 218 S. 14th St. on the current site of the W. Dale Clark Library, was one of 14 funeral homes that operated between Farnam and Harney Streets in downtown Omaha. The Heafey brothers, who in the beginning also sold church goods and religious articles, moved their business to 2611 Farnam St. in 1911. Morgan died six years later, followed by Patrick in 1921. In 1928, their children moved Heafey & Heafey into the Guy Barton Mansion at 3522 Farnam. The mansion, since demolished, was the firm’s home for 52 years. By the late 1920s, most of the families with historical or corporate links to today’s Heafey Hoffmann Dworak & Cutler also were helping Omaha-area residents lay their deceased loved ones to rest. The Cutler family’s original Council Bluffs funeral home, now known as Cutler-O’Neil-Meyer-Woodring, has its own lengthy history. Lewis Cutler, great-grandfather of William A. “Bill” Cutler III, opened for business in 1901 at 28 Pearl St. in downtown Council Bluffs. Lewis’ grandfather had entered the funeral business in Indiana in the 1850s. The firm Lewis founded later moved to Willow Street, where it has operated for decades near the cylindrical “Squirrel Cage Jail” once operated by Pottawattamie County. Lewis’ grandson, William A. Cutler Jr. took over Cutler Funeral Home in 1957 and remained actively involved until his death in November 2010. Bernard J. Larkin was the firm’s next patriarch to set up shop, starting a funeral home in 1909 near 24th and N Streets. A year later, Alois Korisko became George Brewer’s new partner in what became known as Brewer-Korisko, and Leo A. Hoffmann, who was born into a funeral-home family in Dubuque, Iowa, founded the mortuary that long bore his name. The current Heafey Hoffmann Dworak & Cutler firm also includes the corporate heritage of Staskiewicz Mortuary, which was operating by the 1930s, and Dworak Mortuary, opened by Adolph J. “Ad” Dworak at 2466 S. 16th St. in 1937. The mergers that formed the current firm began in 1979, when Bill Cutler, who had long since joined his father in operating the family’s Council Bluffs mortuary, decided to expand the family’s interests into Omaha. Bill and his wife, Susan, purchased Hoffmann Mortuary that year, then merged it with Heafey & Heafey. The couple joined Tom and Ed Heafey in building the funeral home at 7805 West Center Road that was destroyed by fire in
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The former Guy Barton Mansion, above, which once stood at 3522 Farnam St., was the home of Heafey & Heafey from 1928 to 1980. Leo A. Hoffmann Mortuary, right, founded in 1910, was one of the many corporate ancestors of today’s Heafey Hoffmann Dworak & Cutler firm. Its building stood on the southwest corner of 24th and Dodge Streets.
January 2016. The firm, now known as Heafey-Heafey-Hoffmann, grew again in 1989 when it bought Bellevue Funeral Chapel. The same year, father and son Paul and Walter Dworak merged Dworak Mortuary into the firm. The last pieces of the current firm’s corporate puzzle were put in place beginning in October 2003, when Heafey Hoffmann Dworak & Cutler bought Brewer-Korisko. In May 2004, the firm bought Larkin Funeral Home and Staskiewicz Mortuary and combined them with the Brewer-Korisko operation to form Korisko Larkin Staskiewicz Funeral Home. The Cutlers now have interests in nine funeral homes and four cemeteries throughout the Omaha-Council Bluffs metro area. Bill Cutler and his son, William Cutler IV, are active partners in Heafey Hoffmann Dworak & Cutler as well as their family’s original funeral home in Council Bluffs. From the 1880s to the present day, the firm’s current partners and their many personal and corporate ancestors have worked alongside their customers and neighbors in public and volunteer service throughout the metro area. A World-Herald article from March 12, 1898, tells how George Brewer helped save the life of a Bellevue man who had been shot. Brewer picked up the man from another South Omaha undertaker and brought him to St. Joseph Hospital, where the man was “in a bad condition, but not beyond recovery” at the time the article was published. Both Brewer and Patrick Heafey figured in a colorful election battle for the Douglas County coroner’s post in 1908, at a time when voters still chose the coroner and undertakers eagerly competed for the job. After Coroner Harry B. Davis died in
office in July 1908, the County Board appointed Brewer to succeed him until voters could choose a new coroner that fall. Brewer then narrowly won the Republican nomination, but primary opponent Willis C. Crosby contested the result until just before voters went to the polls. “As a result neither Brewer nor Crosby had put up much of a campaign,” The World-Herald wrote in August 1909, “while Colonel P.C. Heafey, the Democratic nominee, without a contest in his party, put up a winning (election) fight and laid out Brewer cold and stiff.” Patrick Heafey, a member of the first Nebraska State Board of Embalmers in 1882 and a longtime leader of the Nebraska Undertakers Association, also served for 10 years on Omaha’s Metropolitan Water District board and was a city fire and police commissioner from 1898 to 1901. He received his “Colonel” title when Gov. A.C. Shallenberger named him to his personal staff in 1909, an appointment renewed by Shallenberger successors John Morehead and Keith Neville. His World-Herald obituary on Jan. 25, 1921, said friends blamed his death the previous day on “overwork and exertion” as Nebraska chairman of a fundraising drive for the cause of Ireland’s independence from Great Britain. Leo Hoffmann lost a bid for the coro-
ner’s office in 1911 but was appointed to the Douglas County Board in September 1917 to finish the term of deceased commissioner Jefferson Bedford. He also was engaged in a prominent Omaha fundraising drive in 1921, one that linked him with another of Heafey Hoffmann Dworak & Cutler’s professional ancestors. In May of that year, Hoffmann was named to the executive committee of a $300,000 drive to raise money for permanent buildings at the new Overlook Farm site of Father Flanagan’s Boys Home — now known as Boys Town. The Rev. Edward J. Flanagan had bought the farm earlier that year. When the committee met in July to organize its campaign, The World-Herald reported that it named Hoffmann chairman of fundraising efforts among Omaha businesses. Bernard Larkin led the campaign in south Omaha. Fundraising officially began in November and raised or secured pledges for most of the needed funds within two weeks. Larkin was an active member of the south Omaha chapter of the Izaak Walton League. His brother and onetime mortician partner John J. Larkin Sr. was chairman of the Omaha Housing Authority at the time of Bernard Larkin’s death in December 1952. Hoffmann died in December 1931. Ad Dworak, a prominent member of Omaha’s Czech community, ran the mortuary he founded until 1962 and served as president of the Better Omaha Club, the Vinton Commercial Club, the Czech Civic Alliance and Catholic Sokols of Omaha. While remaining active in Council Bluffs affairs, both Bill and Susan Cutler have been familiar faces in Omaha civic activities since moving across the river to Omaha in 1987. Their family has produced not one but two monarchs of the annual Aksarben Coronation and Scholarship Ball: the Cutlers’ daughter Jeanie as queen in 1994 and Bill himself as 117th king in 2013. Bill is a past chairman and grand marshal of the River City Rodeo, current president of the Nebraska Organ Recovery System, current board member of Physicians Mutual, and also served on the boards of the Westside Foundation, Knights of Aksarben, College of St. Mary and the Merrymakers Association. Susan Cutler has served on many nonprofit boards throughout the metro area. Since the January 2016 fire, Heafey Hoffmann Dworak & Cutler has provided funeral and mortuary services in rented space in a building at 121st Street and West Center Road. The firm’s services remained uninterrupted at its other three locations: Korisko Larkin Staskiewicz at 5108 F St., Vinton Street Chapel at 2466 S. 16th St. (the longtime Dworak Mortuary location) and Bellevue Memorial Chapel at 2202 Hancock St. As they return to their West Center Road home of the past four decades, the partners and employees of Heafey Hoffmann Dworak & Cutler do so with gratitude for the support of their customers and community — gratitude they hope to return in even greater measure as the years pass.