About Us
As you follow the Trans Canada Highway south on
New Brunswick, from Grand Falls towards the Bay of Fundy, you'll
come across the communities of Bath and Florenceville, vital
agricultural service centers for this famous potato-producing
region.
Funeral Director Gary Kilcollins, of Kilcollins
Funeral Home Ltd., says Florenceville is the home of McCain's, one
of the world's largest frozen food producers. And not too far
distant is Hartland with the longest, covered bridge in the world,
whose overall length is twelve hundred and eighty-two feet as it
crosses the Saint John River.
It is at Bath and Florenceville that Kilcollins
operates his funeral centres an his devotion to his profession can
be seen in the quality of his full service family at Bath and chapel
and slumber room at Florenceville.
Kilcollins Funeral Home was Founded in 1952 when
Fred Kilcollins Sr. graduated from the New England School of Anatomy
in Boston, Massachusetts. He had always held a special
interest in the medical field, and made the decision to go into
funeral service when he realized a need for it in his home area.
For the first few months of operation, he worked
out of a converted grocery store (currently an apartment building),
until a new building was completed a few lots away on the Main
Street of Bath.
In the years that followed, Kilcollins, with wife
Laveta and part-time help, also operated ambulance service for the
local area, necessitating a twenty four hour call service.
Motor vehicle accidents along the newly-constructed
Trans Canada Highway and the local secondary roads, together with
long distance transfers to the larger regional hospital, kept this
service busy during any slow periods in the funeral home business.
The ambulance was not financially lucrative, but provided an
enhanced service to the area and provided a customary side business
for funeral homes in small communities.
Kilcollins was elected president of the New
Brunswick Funeral Directors and Embalmers Association in 1961, the
same year his son, Fred Jr., served his apprenticeship at home after
graduating from his fathers alma mater in Boston. The family
experienced a personal tragedy when Fred Jr. passed away in 1965 as
the result of a motor vehicle accident. He left a son Peter,
who, following in his grandfathers and fathers footsteps, is a
licensed funeral director/embalmer in Winnipeg, where he operates
his own funeral service.
In 1966, the founders nephew, Gary Kilcollins, joined the first firm
and received his provincial license in 1968. He had previously served
with ground crew in the Royal Canadian Air Force.
Following Fred Senior's death in 1972, Gary purchased the business from
his aunt Laveta and built the current funeral home at 31 Hospital Street
in Bath in 1973. Ambulance service was discontinued in 1976 and a chapel seating
one hundred an fifty was added to the funeral home in 1976.
Kilcollins purchased an existing funeral facility in Florenceville, seven
miles to the east, in 1980. However, the main office and
preparation room
is located in Bath.
Gary's son, Rodney was born in 1969 and graduated from Kingstec College with
his provincial license in 1993, following apprenticeship with his father.
Rodney purchased the business from his father in October of 2000. Rodney, his wife Tia, and his two children Chandler and Chanelle currently reside in Bath, New Brunswick.
