Strategic placement of natural light in any room helps us reframe our feelings, no matter where we are. Inside our funeral center, natural light from our front windows and high ceilings encouraging light to enter, absolutely lifts our spirits.
Among the first things that people say when they enter is, “This is so beautiful; there’s such warm, natural light in here.” I’m happy to tell them that we use ACME Glass for all our glass product needs. I didn’t have to search far because (President) Mitch Morehead and I grew up in Bryan, and Bryan ISD. Like our fathers, we’re both in Bryan Rotary Club.
Mitch appreciated my decision to reinvest in our original site, revitalizing our College Avenue location, enhancing the value of the street. Historic (and downtown) Bryan is home to our businesses and both of our families have been here for over 60 years. We appreciate longevity and stability among our employees as our extended families in local business. Some of ACME Glass’ installers have been with them for four generations!
In addition to our front windows, windows in each room, in glass shelves of our display cases and custom table tops, all their work is first class. We showed ACME Glass our furniture plan and they knew exactly what they needed. It was amazing to watch the installation process. Their American supplier, Oldcastle Architectural products, made the frames to hold their heavy, one-inch thick, glass. It took four to five installers for the front windows. Everything we have is meant to last for many years to come, and we didn’t cut corners on quality.
Glass installation and architectural visitation is an art as well as a business, one you only learn on the job from master professionals. Mitch Morehead and I are proud to carry on our family’s traditions and values, every day at work in the Brazos Valley. Come by and see what they did for us.
It’s not necessarily easy to be the second, third, or fifth generation of business leader in your family. But when I think of the paths that Mitch and I have taken in our lives, there’s a lot of similarity. Our dads were major influences on our lives, our first role models and advocates, and also from our moms, we gained support and confidence in our choices in life when we were kids.
But every day we come to work, we see names on our businesses that were established by the men and women who came before us. In my family it was husband and wife working together, generation by generation, and it’s what I’m proud to continue with Chelsea today as we’ve expanded our business.
Mitch paid me a compliment recently that I’m proud and humbled to share. He said, “It took guts for you to not move to the parts of town that might appear to be experiencing more growth right now. You remained on an important road that needs most to be redeveloped and strengthened as a priority.” I thought about that and was glad that he saw it was a choice I made. It was a risk I was willing to take, as we had some major challenges trying to conduct services in chapels graciously offered to us by friends at St. Michael’s Academy and St. Luke’s Methodist Church while we were in between the old and the new. Our staff worked longer and harder for a long time, but we did it.
Today, when I look at the beautiful glass display shelves in our product room, when I see people admiring the glass table tops that protect and decorate our wooden tables, and the clear view of (mostly) sunny skies outside, I’m glad we chose ACME Glass and the Morehead family to be our design partners.
As an avid golfer, or golf fanatic as I’m sometimes called, you know it gives me joy to look across the street and see the Travis B. Bryan Municipal Golf Course. The City of Bryan was making improvements in 2015 while we were preparing for our 2016 demolition and reconstruction. Many of today’s golfers there remember my grandfather, and he loved all sports, anything that was an Aggie sport, he had season tickets and he attended.
You know, it’s not reflective glass that Mitch’s team installed, but it is memory glass…in that every time I look through it, I can see behind me and ahead of me…behind me is a litany of goodwill in this community that family before me built up and gave me to continue my journey. Ahead of me is the hope that I can continue to reflect and expand the care our family has for your families here at home.
It’s an old saying but the quote goes something like, “You can’t know where you’re going until you know where you’ve been.” Now, Yogi Berra had a better quote, “If you don’t know where you are going, you’ll end up someplace else.” Somewhere between those two thoughts is some wisdom. I’ll just say that we began our business, like Mitch’s family did theirs, on South College Avenue, and here we are, sixty years later for our family, right where you can still find us without having to search a Google map.
Come by and check out our new funeral center; we keep the coffee on fresh, and the ACME Glass is always polished, so we can let the sun shine in.
