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Christmas, his home in north San Antonio burned to the ground. The silver lining?: No one died. And as Dick says, &"Although I lost my home, I still have what is most important to me: my family, friends, freedom and faith.&"
After that loss, Dick lived in a hotel in downtown San Antonio, rediscovering the city where he was born and raised. That year the New Year's Eve celebration was held in front of the Fairmount Hotel. Seeing that this jewel of San Antonio had fallen into disrepair was disappointing. Dick located the owners, purchased the hotel, and renovated the entire property.
What do a Hotel and a Funeral Home have in common? "They are both 24/7/365 operations, and they are both all about Customer Service," says Dick. Those who use Mission Park have the luxury of allowing the Fairmount to be their "spare bedroom" for family and friends during life's most difficult time. &"If you don't have a place to receive well wishers? No problem, you have the Fairmount,&" Dick tells everyone. &"We help people coming in for a funeral with travel and lodging plans. Provide them with e-mail and phone service, connect the family to our housekeeping services and car wash. And we work with the family on the memorial folder as well as their video tribute. My home is your home,&" is Dick's philosophy, and to help make it feel more like a home, we have Luke Tips &"Director of Pet Relations&" the Fairmount's concierge/live in Labrador retriever who was rescued by the Tips Family.
&"We handle receptions anywhere the family wants,&" Dick says assuredly. &"We will go to a house, hotel, to a park. The same is true of funeral services. We will go wherever the family wants. We know that funeral services need to be unique to the individual. Not everyone wants hymns. Some prefer country music, others jazz. Several times families have asked if they could have bagpipes. One woman asked that we play 'Waltz
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Across Texas' at the end of the service because she and her husband loved to dance. "
Dick always keeps the family's needs in mind. Dick has made private flight arrangements to get loved ones to their destination and has picked up vacationing family members by helicopter when an unexpected death has occurred.
For many, cremation is preferred to burial. Because Mission Park owns the crematory, the loved one never leaves the premises until they are inurned, or the ashes have been scattered over places of special importance, such as at sea, a favorite view overlooking a river,or laid to rest in an urn garden. "We are here to help them carry out their final wishes," Dick says proudly. Beyond catering to unique final requests, Mission Park offers the only perpetual care cemetery for pets in all of Texas.
Established in the late 1970s, when a new highway was going to disrupt the burial place of a family's beloved pets, the Tips family opened a pet cemetery. "Our pets become such an important part of enjoyment of life, that it is fitting that we lessen our loss by putting them to rest in a place where they will be remembered", Dick says.
What is the secret of success of this century old business? "We never forget that our families' needs come first and quality care and service go hand in hand. That's something my great-grandfather established and it's become our culture - to go above and beyond, do whatever it takes to assist our families," says Dick.
Dick knows that a company's strength is its people. With the team that he has built over the years, he continues his family's calling to serve his community in the way he was taught by older generations, as well as improve that care through innovative services. "At Mission Park, it truly is our mission to care." says Dick.
For more information, call 1-800-M-I-S-S-I-O-N - Mission South 210.924.4242 - Mission North 210.349.1414. Please visit MissionParks.com.
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