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It is a bond of friendship through funeral service that started over 100 years ago. Now those bonds are stronger than ever. The Billow Funeral Homes & Crematory, Summit County’s first and finest funeral home, and Bissler & Sons Funeral Home and Crematory, Portage County’s premiere funeral home, have come together as one to serve Northeast Ohio - TOGETHER. The move will ensure that the Bissler family’s 115 year legacy of providing local best-in-class service to the community of Kent will continue on under the leadership of the Billow family, who have served greater Akron for over 143 years. The cities of Akron, Kent, and Cuyahoga Falls deserve the absolute very best – this move will ensure that the citizens of Summit County and Portage County will continue to have access to the highest levels of compassionate care when faced with the loss of a loved one.

The bonds between the two families run deep, going all the way back to the beginning of the 1900s when Captain George Billow, founder of The Billow Co. in 1875, helped his neighbor to the east, Sam C. Bissler, start his funeral practice in 1903. Pictured below is a meeting of the Ohio Funeral Director’s Association in 1918 – George Billow and Sam Bissler can be seen in the first row (bottom left) standing shoulder to shoulder.

Together, the Billow’s and Bissler’s have a combined 250 year tradition, spanning six-generations, of providing compassionate, respectful, and dignified services in an economical manner to the families entrusted into their care.

Nathanael Billow, executive vice president and treasurer for Billow Funeral Homes, said the funeral homes his family owns are ordering extra products they use in preparing bodies, sanitizing their funeral homes with industrial-strength cleaners and reviewing with funeral directors the regulations surrounding the care of the deceased.“The guidance that we have, we want to be very safe and we want to be very proactive,” Billow said.The 145-year-old Billow Funeral Homes company, like others in the business, is in new territory as its strives to be sensitive to grieving families as well as respond to concerns about the spread of coronavirus.

After a friendship lasting decades, the Bissler family and the Billow family have become more than that. They’re now business partners.

Billow Funeral Homes and Crematory Owner Chip Billow said his funeral home and Bissler & Sons Funeral Home have finalized a merger as of Aug. 1.

“The thing that’s exciting about this is that it has been a lifelong friendship between Rick (Bissler) and me,” Billow said. “It’s a perfect fit from his perspective, and it’s a perfect fit from our perspective.”