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StaffLife Story Funeral Director
toele@lifestorynet.com
Every good organization requires a dedicated man behind the scenes. For Heritage Funeral Service this would be Tim Oele. Tim has a great deal to do with making sure everything is ready when it's time for visitations and funerals. And he's very good at it. After all, he had one of the finest teachers in the world, Joe Oele, his dad.
Tim was born and raised in Grand Rapids in a family of three girls and three boys. With six kids in the family, life was always busy at home; plus Tim played baseball and basketball in school, washed cars for his dad, and worked at the gas station across from the funeral home. The summer before college he worked at the funeral home.
Tim went to Grand Rapids Junior College and then to Worsham College of Mortuary Science in Chicago. While at mortuary college he furthered his experience by living and working in a funeral home in Skokie. Tim got used to the "big city" quickly but says a year there was long enough. He was happy to return to Grand Rapids and went right to work at Van't Hof's.
Tim met his wife, Mary (VanderVeen) at church. They make their home in Ada with their son, Joshua, and daughter Rachel and attend Ada Christian Reformed Church. As a family, they love to go away for spring break, taking trips to Aruba, South Padre Island, Gulf Shores in Alabama, and out East. Mary and the kids fill the house with music (Joshua plays the trumpet, Rachel plays the violin and Mary is a cellist) but Tim is more the outdoors type. He prefers softball in the summer and snowmobiling in the winter. Actually, the whole family enjoys snowmobiling up north during our great Michigan winters.
As a life story funeral director Tim is the one who sees that all the important detail work is done on time every time. He knows the value of the process that makes the funeral relevant by helping people celebrate life and carry that life forward into the future.
Tim was born and raised in Grand Rapids in a family of three girls and three boys. With six kids in the family, life was always busy at home; plus Tim played baseball and basketball in school, washed cars for his dad, and worked at the gas station across from the funeral home. The summer before college he worked at the funeral home.
Tim went to Grand Rapids Junior College and then to Worsham College of Mortuary Science in Chicago. While at mortuary college he furthered his experience by living and working in a funeral home in Skokie. Tim got used to the "big city" quickly but says a year there was long enough. He was happy to return to Grand Rapids and went right to work at Van't Hof's.
Tim met his wife, Mary (VanderVeen) at church. They make their home in Ada with their son, Joshua, and daughter Rachel and attend Ada Christian Reformed Church. As a family, they love to go away for spring break, taking trips to Aruba, South Padre Island, Gulf Shores in Alabama, and out East. Mary and the kids fill the house with music (Joshua plays the trumpet, Rachel plays the violin and Mary is a cellist) but Tim is more the outdoors type. He prefers softball in the summer and snowmobiling in the winter. Actually, the whole family enjoys snowmobiling up north during our great Michigan winters.
As a life story funeral director Tim is the one who sees that all the important detail work is done on time every time. He knows the value of the process that makes the funeral relevant by helping people celebrate life and carry that life forward into the future.
