CENTRAL CHAPEL–A Home for Funerals
CENTRAL CHAPEL Funeral & Cremation represents the association of two fine firms, Central Funeral Chapel and Robert J. Moynihan & Co., which came together in December of 2010.
The Central Funeral Chapel was established in 1985 at a time when many firms had been sold to high cost, impersonal, national funeral chains. It was strategically built 4 blocks from a Blake-Lamb Chapel, which was owned by the SCI Dignity chain. And the concept was to serve one family at a time offering a homelike setting and "living room comfort." Central Chapel has all the amenities of a large firm: spacious coffee and reception room, on-premise casket and urn display yet not the high costs and impersonal treatment that we often experience when dealing with large institutions. Central Chapel is unique in offering undivided attention to each family served and offering a quiet, private environment for people in the days following the death of a loved one.
The unique contribution that Robert J. Moynihan & Co. brought to Central Chapel and makes to 21st century Funeral Service on the southwest side and downtown Chicago area is that it integrates tradition with innovation, affordability with distinction, providing all of this by a remarkably exceptional, caring staff and seasoned funeral directors -- on the shoulders of a century of service by our Lane Chapel founders.
Robert Moynihan, Funeral Director and President of Central Chapel, has often been described as the quintessential funeral director. A gifted public speaker on the outside and a stickler for details on the inside, Bob Moynihan believes two things passionately:
1. Every life has meaning and should be honored.
2. Funerals are too expensive.
Robert Moynihan became a Funeral Director in 1983 and acquired the Ketcham Funeral Chapel, one of Chicago’s oldest funeral firms, in its centennial year. The firm was later renamed LANE-MOYNIHAN, in memory of DeWitt Lane, a mentor of Bob’s who had a reputation for sincere, honest, sensibly priced service. Moynihan also brings his past experience as Managing Partner of Lain-Sullivan and Lain-Fern Funeral Homes where he learned the importance of providing high quality and unique services while attracting more and more families due to being cost sensitive.
Bob Moynihan worked with and for some of the best funeral directors in Chicago, learning different things from each of them. Abiding gratitude to these mentors: Leonard Tobuch, of Ketcham Funeral Chapel and Doty-Panozzo Funeral Home, James Melka, of Beverly Ridge Funeral Home, DeWitt Lane, of Lackore Nichols and Lane, Peter Brady of Brady-Gill Funeral Home, Michael Heeney, of Heeney-Laughlin Sons Funeral Home, Margaret McKeon, of McKeon Funeral Home, Jerry Sullivan, of Cremation Society of Illinois, Marcus Jaeger, of Countryside Funeral Homes, James R. Sheehy, formerly of John J. Sheehy & Sons, and James and Ronald Lack, of Lack & Sons.
We are proud of our past but it's who we are today that is making a difference, making us Chicago's leader in distinctive and affordable funeral care. If you have any questions about our past or our future, please feel free to call us 773-581-9000 or e-mail us, care@chapelc.com