About Us
About Us
Family History
The Baird family’s roots in funeral service reach back to the late 1800s, when Walter E. Baird began serving families in the Scottsburg and Conesus areas. In the early 1900s, he relocated the business to Wayland, where he continued his work until his passing in 1930.
During the early 1920s, his son, W. Eugene Baird, carried on the family tradition by opening a funeral home in the North Cohocton/Atlanta area. He later moved to Wayland in 1930 and operated the family business until his untimely death in 1937. Following his passing, Eugene’s wife, Cora (Reigelsperger) Baird, worked alongside their eldest son, Theodore E. Baird, to continue serving families. In 1949, Theodore also purchased a funeral home in Dansville. Together, Cora and Theodore operated both locations until Cora’s death in 1955.
In 1959, the youngest of the four children, Walter E. (Gene) Baird III, assumed leadership of the family business. In the early 1980s, Gene’s two sons and his nephew, Baird R. Booth—all great-grandsons of Walter E. Baird—graduated from the Simmons School of Mortuary Science in Syracuse, continuing the family’s long-standing commitment to the profession.
The Baird family expanded further in 1984 with the purchase of the Pennington Funeral Home in Dundee, managed by Walter E. (Chip) Baird IV until it was sold to Chip and his father in 1992. Gene and his sons, Chip and Richard C. Baird, later acquired the Willis C. Moore Funeral Home in Naples. Gene retired in 1997. In 2001, Chip and Richard purchased the Chamberlin Funeral Home in Dansville.
Today, while the three cousins are not directly connected by ownership, they remain close and work together to uphold the trusted reputation built by generations before them—one earned through serving thousands of families across New York State.
Facilities
All facilities are fully handicap accessible, centrally air-conditioned, and offer ample parking. Each location is thoughtfully designed and decorated to feel warm, welcoming, and home-like.
Services
For more than 100 years, the Baird family has been committed to providing attentive, dedicated funeral services to every family they serve. In addition to funeral care, they offer complete headstone and monument design and installation, including lettering and engraving of names and dates.
Their team works directly with a modern granite manufacturer in Montpelier, Vermont, known for exceptional craftsmanship and premium granite sourced from around the world. Together, they help families create lasting memorials that truly reflect and honor the life being remembered.
