Maintaining a tradition of quality service and merchandise is what J. Peter Ducro, president of Ducro Funeral Services, credits for the success of his fifth-generation business.

John P. Ducro

Ducro was featured speaker at the Economic Profiles Breakfast at Kent State University Ashtabula Campus. Ducro highlighted the history of the business his great-grandfather, John P. Ducro, a cabinet maker, began 140 years ago. Some original furniture remains in their funeral homes.

While the business moved from its original location in Cherry Valley to Jefferson, and then Ashtabula, it also has seen changes from horse drawn to motorized hearses.

J.P. Ducro

Funerals moved from family homes to the funeral parlor. More recently, the funeral service established a limousine business and greatly expanded the pre-planning of funerals. Ducro Services came to the Ashtabula Harbor area with Askew-Brink-Ducro Funeral Home at West 11th Street and Michigan Avenue. In 1986, Ducro Funeral Services became the only funeral home between Cleveland and Erie to have its own crematory.

John T. Ducro

But, as technology has improved and options available increased, the purpose of a funeral remains the same. "It validates the life of the person who has died," Ducro said. "A funeral also gives family members the right to grieve," he added.

J. Peter and Sue Ducro with their son J.P. Ducro IV

"You can have your funeral any way you want it," Ducro said. He remembered when the ashes of a farmer were spread on a freshly plowed field. The farmer's granddaughter told Ducro she's never forgotten her grandfather after that ceremony. Ducro Funeral Services also receives some requests for ashes to be placed in Lake Erie.

Besides making expansions and improvements to the funeral home and its services, Ducro Funeral Home also has become involved in community groups like Hospice and the Compassionate Friends for people who have lost a child. Ducro also does programs on living wills and seminars on grief management. It is also the only funeral home with a lending library of more than 200 volumes for bereaved people.

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