Gresham Memorial Chapel is a family-owned full-service funeral home. 

The mantra for a business dedicated to serving folks during the most difficult periods in life: “Take your time. Don’t rush. There is no hurry.”

Gresham Memorial Chapel, a family-owned full-service funeral home, in an industry where that is becoming all too rare, radiates peace. The business works with grieving families to honor loved ones who have passed, going through all the processes to ensure they are sent off with dignity and respect.

“The majority of people don’t know the process when someone passes,” said John Gerbish, owner and licensed funeral director and embalmer. “We are here to help get you through.”

“We are here — even if a family comes in and wants to sit and talk and then go home,” he added.

That patience and kindness resonates with the community, and led to Gresham Memorial Chapel being named Best Funeral Home in The Outlook and Sandy Post’s 2025 Reader’s Choice.

“We really appreciate the support,” Gerbish said. “We have good relationships in this community and have gotten to know a lot of people.”

Best Funeral Home

Gresham Memorial Chapel

Where: 257 S.E. Roberts Ave.

Phone: 503-618-8176

Website: greshamfuneral.com

Gresham Memorial Chapel, 257 S.E. Roberts Ave., offers direct cremation to full traditional funerals, and will go to any cemetery in Oregon, Washington and Idaho. What sets it apart is the staff, six in total, all of whom go out of their way to help anyone who walks in the front doors.

“The staff is wonderful, perfect,” Gerbish said. “I wouldn’t have a bit of problem letting them run this place.”

Gerbish is a veteran of the industry. He first knew he could handle the difficult line of work when working as a janitor at a Providence hospital. When asked to clean the morgue, while an autopsy was happening, it didn’t bother him.

So he became an apprentice embalmer and completed the Funeral Service Program at Mt. Hood Community College.

“Every day is a learning experience, I enjoy helping people,” he said.

He worked for Lou Carroll at Carroll Funeral Home; Finley’s Sunset Hills; Bateman-Carroll (when it was still family owned); and was the manager of the Portland Memorial Funeral Home and Mausoleum.

“Every place I worked was family owned, so that was a lot of good education,” he said.

The building he works out of has even more history than Gerbish. It was a privately owned home, lived in by Boone and Hanna Johnson. After Boone’s death in 1916, it was sold to Edna and Charles Gates, who built an adjoining funeral chapel. William and Anna Carroll purchased the business in 1930, adding a new chapel after a fire had damaged the original. Their son — Lewis Carroll, continued with remodels until the late 80’s, merging with Gresham’s other premiere funeral home (Bateman’s) and moving to the Powell location.

For a while the house served as a wedding chapel, reception and banquet facility, Parkside Wedding Chapel, owned and managed by Stan Morris.

But Gerbish had visions of turning it back into a funeral home. In 1998 he bought the building, conducted an extensive remodel and added a room for embalming and refrigeration, and reopened the business as Gresham Memorial Chapel in 2005.

Gerbish’s parents passed a number of years ago, and that helped further his understanding of death and loss.

“That helped me know what to expect, and the process the families go through,” he said. “Everything they are feeling and struggling with is normal.”

Gresham Memorial Chapel has been busy, an uptick that started before the pandemic and has continued since those unprecedented times. The business operates via word-of-mouth, so every new person who walks in means someone else was satisfied.

“It is a good indication we are headed in the right direction,” Gerbish said.