A family mourns the loss of a beloved patriarch with the passing of William "Bud" Kresge at the age of 96 on Jan. 13.

But his legacy lives on as one of his two sons and a grandson continue the family business that is now in its fifth generation the William H. Kresge Funeral Home Inc., which is located in Brodheadsville.Tom Kresge and his son, Tommy, will carry on and grow the legacy that began in 1880 by William A. Kresge.William A. died at the Kunkletown cemetery in preparation of the grave site for Elizabeth Borger. The town of Brodheadsville and area businesses shut down in his honor, says Tom Kresge of his great-grandfather.In 1880, the present site of the funeral home was originally a furniture store where caskets and furniture were made.The funeral home was where Tommy Kresge now lives, next to the current building. It was in this house that Bud Kresge was born.The 1880s William had a son, Eugene M. Kresge who took over the business, Bud Kresge's father."My dad actually started working for his father in 1938. He graduated from Eckels School of Mortuary Science in Philadelphia in 1939. He got his license in 1941 and took over the business in 1947 after Eugene died," Tom Kresge says.ContinuingtraditionGrowing up, Tom Kresge helped his dad with lifting and working at viewings. He graduated from Pleasant Valley High School and attended East Stroudsburg University, where he majored in biology. By that time, he had an inkling that he would follow in his dad's footsteps into the business.After he graduated in 1977, he worked for his father and then attended the Pillsbury Institute of Mortuary Science. He did his internship with his father and got his state license in 1981.He married Laura Kreger in 1984. They have two children, Sarah Adams and Tommy Kresge and one, granddaughter, Adelee Adams.Tommy Kresge helped in the business during high school, but wasn't quite sure what he wanted to do.He majored in business at Wilkes University. By his junior year, he started doing some serious thinking about coming into the family business. After graduation in 2010, he entered the mortuary program at Northampton Community College, graduated in 2012, did a year's internship at Kresge's and got his license in August 2013."It seems like a natural progression when you grow up around it," Tom Kresge says. His son agrees."I like being here for the family and helping the community. It's an honor to continue a legacy," Tommy Kresge says.The strong sense of keeping the family business alive is so strong that he says if he hadn't gone into the business, his older sister, Sarah said she would have continued the family legacy.Pros and cons"It's a rewarding career. You deal with people and probably at the worst time in their lives. Being able to help them through it makes you feel good. It is also financially rewarding," Tom Kresge says.The biggest drawback to being a funeral director is, you're on call 24/7, 365 days a year."My father never took a vacation in his 67 years in the business. He went to funeral conventions, but never was gone more than one or two days at a time," Tom Kresge says."Growing up, my mom, grandmother, aunt, my older brother Bill and I would take vacations in the summer together without Dad. He liked to hunt and fish," says Tom Kresge.He says the only extended vacations he has taken in his 30 years in the business was his honeymoon to Hawaii, and he and Laura took their children to Disney World when they were 12 and 10 years old.When Tommy Kresge began to think about coming into the family business, his father told him to get his traveling out of his system before he came into it. He took him up on that advice and has been to the Caribbean several times.An star basketball player at Pleasant Valley High School and Wilkes University, he had an opportunity to play basketball in Barbados for 10 days and took advantage of it.He and his fiance, Ana Bell, plan on going to Hawaii for their honeymoon in September of this year. That will probably have to hold him for a while.Sense of humorBut that doesn't mean funeral directors don't have any fun or a sense of humor. Bud Kresge was well known for his humor.Tom Kresge gives an example of his father's mischievous side."Many years ago when the Brodheadsville post office was along Route 209, Dad walked in one day and saw a long line of customers. He announced that a truck full of cattle was loose and running free at a near-by farm and everyone rushed outside to see the excitement. Dad was the only one left and was now first in line. There had been no loose cattle."Tom Kresge says there are a lot of stories they could tell.One time he had a viewing at a church and a fight broke out between two of the relatives. The police were called in and they sent everyone home.Bud Kresge's very first funeral was spoken in Pennsylvania Dutch. It was a good thing he understood and spoke it.Back in his early days in the business, the embalming of a body was normally done in the person's home. Many homes still didn't have electricity. Bud Kresge's mother, Hannah, would hold a gas light for him during the process."Dad really built this business," Tom says.