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StaffLife Story Funeral Director
marthollebeek@lifestorynet.com
Martin is a natural at helping people celebrate the life of someone they love. This is partly the result of some valuable life lessons he learned at an early age. Growing up in his family's funeral home on W. Leonard St., he saw first hand how fragile life can be; and then, as a young boy stricken with polio, he saw the compelling potential of human strength and determination.
Martin is a graduate of Calvin College and Wayne State University School of Mortuary Science. With the war in Vietnam going on after college, Mart enlisted in the Army Reserve. He and his long-time sweetheart, Mary Dekker, were married three days before he left for basic training. After a two-day honeymoon in Chicago, Mary dropped him off at O'Hare Airport to catch a flight to Ft. Leonard Wood, MO.
In addition to being a life story funeral director, Martin is a leader in funeral service as a business and as a profession. After his military training Mart joined his dad and Joe Oele at the Van't Hof Chapel on W. Leonard St. Eventually they bought the Creston Funeral Home on Plainfield, NE, merged with Ron Karelse and the Van Strien-Alman Funeral Home, then bought the Alt Mortuary and merged it with the Shawmut Hills Chapel. Since then they have added the Achterhoff Funeral Home in Muskegon and the Stephens Funeral Home in Scottville. Heritage Funeral Service believes every life is special, that every life has a story, and that every life deserves to be honored.
Mart has also made a major contribution to funeral service in the State of Michigan by playing a leading role in the Michigan Funeral Directors Association including serving as association president in 2000-2001. This important work requires countless hours of meetings and consultations all devoted to improving and strengthening the commitment of funeral directors to meeting the needs of the families they serve. He followed his father's footsteps in this endeavor as his dad, Fred Hollebeek, served in the same capacity in 1986.
Mart and Mary have three children. Matthew and his wife, Robin, live in Grand Rapids and Matthew is a licensed funeral director. Dirk and his wife, Stacy, live in Rehoboth, NM where Dirk teaches high school. Emily and her husband, Phillip Brechting, live in Lexington, KY where Emily is in the doctoral program in psychology at the University of Kentucky.
Mart has been an elder and a deacon and has served on the board of West Side Christian School and also Grand Rapids Christian High School. Mart and Mary are members of Madison Square Christian Reformed Church.
Mart enjoys spending time at Big Star Lake, and love to fish and boat. Also, he and Mary enjoy traveling to see their family. One form of escape for Mart in particular is to take off on his Harley motorcycle; it renews his connection with the world in general and refreshes his outlook on life. Probably his favorite thing, though, is to do a little woodworking in his corner of the basement; he's built a toy box for one grandson and a cradle for the other. Obviously, Mart's grandchildren are going to play a big role in his own life story as he lives the stories of tomorrow each moment of each day.
Martin is a graduate of Calvin College and Wayne State University School of Mortuary Science. With the war in Vietnam going on after college, Mart enlisted in the Army Reserve. He and his long-time sweetheart, Mary Dekker, were married three days before he left for basic training. After a two-day honeymoon in Chicago, Mary dropped him off at O'Hare Airport to catch a flight to Ft. Leonard Wood, MO.
In addition to being a life story funeral director, Martin is a leader in funeral service as a business and as a profession. After his military training Mart joined his dad and Joe Oele at the Van't Hof Chapel on W. Leonard St. Eventually they bought the Creston Funeral Home on Plainfield, NE, merged with Ron Karelse and the Van Strien-Alman Funeral Home, then bought the Alt Mortuary and merged it with the Shawmut Hills Chapel. Since then they have added the Achterhoff Funeral Home in Muskegon and the Stephens Funeral Home in Scottville. Heritage Funeral Service believes every life is special, that every life has a story, and that every life deserves to be honored.
Mart has also made a major contribution to funeral service in the State of Michigan by playing a leading role in the Michigan Funeral Directors Association including serving as association president in 2000-2001. This important work requires countless hours of meetings and consultations all devoted to improving and strengthening the commitment of funeral directors to meeting the needs of the families they serve. He followed his father's footsteps in this endeavor as his dad, Fred Hollebeek, served in the same capacity in 1986.
Mart and Mary have three children. Matthew and his wife, Robin, live in Grand Rapids and Matthew is a licensed funeral director. Dirk and his wife, Stacy, live in Rehoboth, NM where Dirk teaches high school. Emily and her husband, Phillip Brechting, live in Lexington, KY where Emily is in the doctoral program in psychology at the University of Kentucky.
Mart has been an elder and a deacon and has served on the board of West Side Christian School and also Grand Rapids Christian High School. Mart and Mary are members of Madison Square Christian Reformed Church.
Mart enjoys spending time at Big Star Lake, and love to fish and boat. Also, he and Mary enjoy traveling to see their family. One form of escape for Mart in particular is to take off on his Harley motorcycle; it renews his connection with the world in general and refreshes his outlook on life. Probably his favorite thing, though, is to do a little woodworking in his corner of the basement; he's built a toy box for one grandson and a cradle for the other. Obviously, Mart's grandchildren are going to play a big role in his own life story as he lives the stories of tomorrow each moment of each day.
