Lynn funeral home manager purchases own business

Tom Newhall?s career took a decided turn from auto workshop at Lynn Tech to the proprietor of a funeral home in Gloucester, but it all makes sense ? and it all worked out in the end.Newhall, who has managed the Cuffe-McGinn Funeral Home on Maple Street in Lynn since 2005, completed the purchase of his own establishment in Gloucester on Friday. It?s been an ambition of his since he graduated from Mt. Ida College in 1993, and he owes it all to the late Walter A. Cuffe Jr., who died in 2012.?I showed up at his door in 1988,” said Newhall, “and told him I wanted a job.”So, Newhall washed cars and picked weeds around the funeral home. But Cuffe, a former teacher and guidance counselor before he took over his father?s business, saw something in Newhall.?I guess the old guidance counselor in him came out,” said Newhall, who lives in Georgetown. “He told me ?you don?t want to be a mechanic. You want to be a funeral director.?”With that, he offered Newhall a job – and Newhall readily accepted, and that?s how he ended up at embalming school. He became an apprentice in 1990 and became licensed three years later.After 18 years with Cuffe – the last 10 as manager of the funeral home (these days part of a chain that purchased the establishment from Cuffe in 1995) – Newhall is striking out on his own. He and his wife, Robin, will run the Pike-Newhall Funeral Home on Middle Street in Gloucester. And he even owes that to Cuffe.?I have to tell you,” he said, “Walter has been my mentor all these years. Right before he passed away, he told me to take care of my families. I knew then what I had to do ? Walter said that I was great at what I did, and that nothing could stop me from excelling.?He gave me the confidence to do this,” Newhall added. “He told me the future is what we make of it. He gave me great advice in the hours before he died.”Like the Cuffe funeral home, Newhall is buying into a long-established business. Willard Pike opened the funeral home in 1990, and his grandson, Harold, operated it for many years until he sold it to Kevin Grondin, who, in turn, sold it to Newhall.Newhall said it took a giant leap of faith to go through with his ambition, and credits his wife, and his three daughters, Teagan, 18; Brigid, 15; and RileeKate, 12; with supporting him.?They have always supported me in this,” he said. “I?m passionate about it. I believe that owning my own funeral home is the place where I should be at this stage of my life. I love what I do.”What he loves most, he said, is the knowledge that he has fulfilled a family?s need at a time where it is most needed.?The biggest reward is when a family, six months or so after a service, thanks me for what I did for them,” he said. “I?ve gotten that from a lot of families. Whether you want to call this a calling, or whatever, I believe truly this is what I was meant to do.”However, he said there are parts of the job that are excruciatingly challenging.?I?m human,” he said. “When you?re holding a little baby in your arms, that?s really heartbreaking. You can?t imagine what people are going through.?There is nothing sadder than seeing people burying their children, regardless of how old they are,” Newhall said. “But I have to be there for the families, to help them.”That is what first made him stand out to Cuffe, he said.?He told me that I cared about people,” Newhall said, “and that I was passionate.”He said he?s been approached by both the chiefs of the Lynn Police and Fire departments about joining their respective forces, “but I truly believe that it is an honor to serve these people in the way I am serving them. I have Walter and my family to thank for that.”You couldn?t be blamed for wondering whether Newhall, who was inducted last year into the Lynn Tech Hall of Fame, might be able to cut himself a break on limo repairs with his background as an auto shop student. Forget it.?I?m a terrible mechanic,” he said. “I call AAA.”