Tom Roper is a 4th generation in the same, family owned funeral business that has been serving Lincoln and its surrounding areas for over 120 years. Tom told us that Roper & Sons was started in 1901 when his Grandfather was asked by a funeral director about using his team of white horses to pull the ambulance, and hearse for the funeral home. Tom's grandfather became a partner in this funeral home, thus started Roper & Sons. Roper & Son was originally down town in Lincoln, and then they moved to a second location down town. In 1960 they moved to their location at 4300 "O" Street. Over the years, and more specifically since 2003, Roper and Sons has grown from its central location at 4300 O Street to five locations with the purchase of Metcalf Funeral Homes in Lincoln and Firth, a Waverly location and the addition of our newest location at 40th and Yankee Hill. Max Roper was a second generation that worked at Roper & Sons until his death in 1989.
The third generation to work at Roper & Sons was Tom's dad, Charles (Pooch) Roper. Charles retired in 2021. Tom has had the pleasure of working with his own father for 35 years. William (Bill) Roper is another generation who is mostly retired and a fellow Rotarian. Before that he didn't know what he wanted to do, so he traveled and lived in Colorado for a while, and the opening became available at Roper & Sons for a student. He did realize that it was a quiet place to study while he did his work. Tom began working for Roper's 40 years ago as a student assisting with evening visitations, mowing the yard, picking weeds, assisting with cremations, night removals from hospitals and nursing homes and going to school. Tom started out studying to become a Physical Therapist, because of a friend of his who was quadriplegic. But as he started to work the evening shift at Roper & Sons, people who came in to sign the book and visit the deceased individual, they would stop and sit down, to begin talking about how they knew that person, what that person was like, etc. and it got his interest. Therefore, Tom changed his major. He went to Dallas, TX for learning about embalming and become a Funeral Director. Tom became a Funeral Director in 1986.
Can you imagine young Tom in a white shirt, pulling weeds, mowing the lawn, helping in parking cars for funeral services. He started to embalm the decease between 1986 and 1990. All embalming is done in the evening. After Max Roper passed, Tom became an officer in the Funeral Home. Five years ago, Tom became President of the Funeral Home. He said that in 1982 he was busy embalming several people and it seemed like a long night to him. He said that before COVID, they averaged about 600 cases and today it is about 50% cremation and 50% traditional. May people prefer cremation because of the cost. Cremation cost about $1100 and some feel it is simple and easier to handle. Opening and Closing of a grave is about $2200 at Lincoln Memorial.
What is Tom's role as President? He has the opportunity to sit down with family members and ask questions about them so that he can get a good feel about the family and about the deceased individual. He wants them to feel comfortable and know that he has their best interest. He has a good support team and that team follows up a week or two after the service to check on the family to see how they are doing.
What happened during COVID? Tom said they split their staff into half for about five or six months. This way there was no cross contamination. He said it was probably hardest thing he has been through and that many people suffered. You were constantly making arrangements for a love one every day of the week. The usual three to four days of turn around was not easy to meet. It might take four to five days. When it wasn't your week to work you might be sitting around or trying to arrange something via Zoom. Zoom arrangements just don't work. At the time you could have only ten people attend a service and there was no indoor services, only outdoor services. Many who wanted traditional services changed to cremation instead. Some chose cremation and held no services whatsoever. This was hard for the Funeral Home because it caused their income to go down, just everyone else's. One thing they learned quickly was how to set up livestream services. One nice thing about their South location it was big enough so that they could seat people apart and it was wired for livestream.