A Century of Care – Miami Valley Today

By Matt Clevenger

[email protected]

TROY — Baird Funeral Home will celebrate A Century of Care on Saturday, May 20, honoring 100 years of service and hosting an ice-cream social that will be free and open to the public.

“We consider it an honor to continue our service in the community,” co-owner Tami Baird said.

“We are going to host an ice-cream social here on our property on May 20,“ she said. “We invite those in the community who we’ve had the opportunity to serve, as well as other friends and community members to join us that day.”

More information on the ice-cream social can be found online at www.bairdfuneralhome.com.

“It’s open to the public,” Baird said. “We just wanted to do something in recognition of the hundred years, and reflecting back on our history.”

Located at 555 N. Market St., the firm originally started out at a different location on South Cherry Street.

“Our forefathers were Joseph W. Irvin and Norman Deeter; they started at 20 S. Cherry St., which no longer exists,” Baird said. “The original founder of that location was F.C. Roberts; he actually started that in 1918.”

“We’ve based our anniversary on a longstanding recognition of 1923, when Mr. Irvin came into the practice,” she said.

The Baird family also joined the business at its original location.

“My father, Robert Baird, joined the business in the 1950s,” Baird said. “He came to Troy in late 1956, and joined them down at the 20 S. Cherry St. location.”

Deeter purchased land in 1965, and the business moved to its current location on North Market Street in the fall of 1966, Baird said.

“It was known as Deeter Funeral Home at that time,” she said. “My father had left town for a few years, and came back in 1967 and joined in the business with him, then re-named the funeral home Deeter-Baird in 1968.”

The business became Baird Funeral Home in 1984, after Deeter’s retirement, and has been operated by members of the Baird family since then.

Born and raised in Troy, Tami Baird returned to join the business in 1985.

“I’m a native Trojan,” she said. “I came back here after I graduated from mortuary school.”

“I came here in 1985, and have been here ever since,” she said.

Baird, her husband Allan Ganley and their business partner Craig Wise took over operation of the business in 1995.

“We all came into the business in the 1980s,” Baird said. “In 1995, we took over the day-to-day operations from my father.”

“We consider this our home,” she said of the business’s current location. “We plan to stay here for as long as we’re able to.”

“We are just trying to carry on the legacy that our forefathers have throughout many years,” she said. “We just want to be able to serve families in their time of need. We consider it an honor to be able to help them through one of the most trying times in their lives.”