Each quarter we will feature a story about our Parchment alumni here.

By Dave Person

Bradley Bell credits a Parchment Middle School teacher with providing a key skill that has served him well in his career in the funeral business.

Bell, who learned the trade while working locally at Langeland Family Funeral Homes and Joldersma & Klein Funeral Home, is currently regional director of operations for Heritage Family, which operates over 100 funeral homes in 11 states.

He oversees not only Heritage’s Michigan funeral homes — Langeland chapels in Kalamazoo, Portage and Oshtemo Township and the four Kempf Funeral Home locations in Calhoun County — but also multiple funeral homes in Omaha, Neb., and Los Angeles, Calif.

Bell says fifth-grade teacher Fred Giddings played a role in helping him along his career path — by teaching him to tie a tie!

Even without that lesson, Bell looks back to his middle-school years as a highlight of his school days and says he considers Giddings not only an educator but also a friend.

By the time Bell, 38, graduated from Parchment High School in 2006, he already had his foot in the door of his chosen profession.

He says he felt a calling to be a funeral director during his sophomore year in high school. The next year, he enrolled in the Education for Employment allied health and science program “designed for students who wanted to explore careers in health,” he says.

He also got on-the-job experience at Langeland’s, primarily washing vehicles and cutting the grass, which it was a foot in the door.

“I worked for Langeland’s for three years, from high school until my first year at Kalamazoo Valley Community College,” he says.

While still at KVCC and then while studying online at American Academy McAllister Institute of Funeral Service to become a funeral director, Bell did an apprenticeship at Langeland-Sterenberg Funeral Home in Holland for two years.

Once he graduated from mortuary school and became a licensed funeral director in 2010, he spent 14 years at Joldersma & Klein Funeral Home in Kalamazoo, immersing himself in the trade.

“Dan Adams and his brother had purchased Joldersma & Klein and I was wanting to move back to Kalamazoo,” he says.

Bell says Adams gave him an “invaluable” opportunity to grow in the business, and he responded by helping Adams strengthen the funeral home, while assisting in its management.

“Most of my knowledge and skills have been from on-the-job (experience) and not any education I received,” he says.

In 2024, Bell was hired by Heritage Family to oversee the Langeland and Kempf funeral homes, which the company had purchased.

A few months later he was named a regional director of operations, and last May his duties were expanded into Nebraska and California.

Bell, who lives in Battle Creek, spends about two weeks each month on the road doing site visits at the funeral homes he oversees.

He also still works with families locally from time to time.

“I always make myself available if someone requests working with me — someone I might know from the Kalamazoo community,” he says.

“It is very rewarding to serve people during their time of need,” Bell says. But it’s also a job that includes many responsibilities, long hours and frequent weekends.

His recent promotions have alleviated some of that stress.

“Now, even though I have to travel, I don’t have to work the weekends; I don’t have to go on night-time calls,” he says.

Bell has been married to his wife, Alicia, who works in marketing with the Michigan Army National Guard, since October 2024. She has been active duty with the Guard for 17 years.

They have a blended family of three daughters, Isabel, 13, Alayna, 12, and Elizabeth, 12.

As a family, they love to travel with their fifth wheel camper and enjoy participating in water sports.

Raised in Parchment by his grandparents, Mike and Diane Terry, Bell is the oldest of six siblings. Although his grandfather is deceased, his grandmother, a longtime Parchment Public Schools employee, still lives in Parchment.

Bell credits her with encouraging him to apply to work at Langeland’s after he first showed an interest in the funeral business.

As a student at Parchment High School, Bell worked closely with and was greatly influenced by student council adviser Jodie Lugar-McManus.

“I was very involved with student council and served as student body president tor two years, my sophomore and junior years,” he says.

“High school was really one of the best times of my life,” Bell says, recalling the work on projects such as homecoming and snowcoming celebrations as being time-consuming yet enjoyable.

Other teachers who had an influence on him, he says, are Kevin Huff and Pat Keiser in high school; Julie Hahn and administrators Mike O’Connor and Larry Seaver, in addition to Giddings, at the middle school; and Mary Wiersema, his instructor in the allied health and science program for Education for Employment.

As part of the Education for Employment program and while a student at KVCC, Bell was a member and officer, including president, of the state Health Occupation Students of America, which he then continued to serve after graduation as associate director for HOSA in Michigan and on its board of directors nationally.