After years of following their passion across the country, Richard Vyse and his wife Terri brought their business endeavors right to the heart of La Porte when they became the owners of Haverstock Funeral Home in town.
“We've both been in the funeral business—we’re both licensed funeral directors in multiple states. We’ve operated funeral homes in Florida and West Virginia,” he said. “It was fun working for someone else, but we always wanted to own our own place. For many years, we've been wanting to own and operate our own funeral home.”
That opportunity then came about five years ago when Vyse’s friend knew of a funeral home in Northwest Indiana just waiting for the right people to come and make it their own.
“It was a long road to travel,” Vyse said. “We looked at several and just couldn't quite get the deal put together. As it turns out, a friend of mine knew about Haverstock, and we were able to work with the gentleman that owned it at that time. We were pretty excited to own Haverstock and continue the Haverstock tradition.”
Vyse, originally from Flint, Michigan, was living in New Smyrna Beach, Florida at the time and working in Orlando before making the move to Indiana. Travel and location were beginning to make work a tad difficult, making the cross-country move to Indiana all the more intriguing.
“I operated a couple of funeral homes and cemeteries in the middle part of the state, and Terri was operating a couple on the West Coast,” Vyse said. “We were a long-distance couple who came home on the weekends, and we thought, ‘This is crazy. We just really need our own place.’ When the opportunity presented itself, we said, ‘Let's go for it. Let's give it a shot and see what we can do.’”
Starting over in a brand new area may seem intimidating, but Vyse dove headfirst into the venture straight away. His past experience in the field taught him that community involvement was a major component of running a successful business. With that in mind, he became acquainted with the Greater La Porte Chamber of Commerce, La Porte Economic Advancement Partnership (LEAP), the Kiwanis Club, the Lions Club, the American Legion, and the Veterans of Foreign Wars (VFW) in La Porte, just to name a few.
“Being a business owner, especially a funeral home owner, you have to get involved in your community. It's very, very important,” Vyse said. “We try to stay focused with everything that’s happening as well, such as the Ambassador Club, which is part of the Chamber of Commerce, and then whatever else is going on. We’ll be part of the Sunflower Festival that's coming up, and we’ve been involved with the county fair. We do a display for veterans with our staff, and we go out there for that as well.”
In addition to allowing the Vyses to achieve their business goals, Haverstock has also allowed them to fully immerse themselves in the La Porte community, something they are truly grateful for.
“The whole city and the people in the community have been so welcoming and accepting of us, especially with us taking over Haverstock, which has been here for almost 100 years, to carry on that tradition,” Vyse said. “All of the organizations are very accepting. The American Legion, for example, loves having us down there and does a special dinner for the funeral homes on an annual basis. We go there to support a lot of the causes that they're involved in as well. It's a very nice, friendly community and very welcoming, and that's what we really love about it.”
Outside of work, Vyse mentioned he was excited to move back up north as he favors the colder weather and seasonal changes that the Region brings. He noted he was particularly looking forward to getting back into some of his favorite hobbies, which included snowmobiling and other snow-based activities.
Haverstock Funeral Home offers quality, unique, and personalized services that are hard to come by elsewhere in the area. For more information, visit haverstockfuneralhome.com.