A Montana Legacy
Emil H. Dahl, a successful emigrant blacksmith from Denmark in the Rhame, North Dakota in 1920 bought a hardware store that had a supply of caskets. After attending Worshams's College of Embalming in Chicago he became a licensed Funeral Director. In 1939, the end of the dirty thirties, he bought Nichols Mortuary in Bozeman. His son Eldon, a graduate of the University of Minnesota College of Mortuary Science, joined him in the operation of Dahl Funeral Home. For a brief period of time most of the family (Mother Alice Dahl, sons Eldon, Raymond and Bernard and daughter Mary) worked at the funeral home until interrupted by WWII. (Eldon and Raymond enlisted in the US Army Air Corp, Bernard in the US Navy and Mary in the US Army)
In 1947 Eldon rejoined the firm. In 1955 Bernard Dahl, Howard Retz, and William Brown formed the Billings Funeral Service in Billings. In 1966 Bernard became the sole owner changing the name to Dahl Funeral Chapel. In 1977 Bernard established Dahl Funeral Chapel in Red Lodge, MT and merged Bozeman, Billings and Red Lodge operation into one. In 1978, the new chapel was built in Bozeman to include the only crematory for at least one hundred miles. In 1990 Bernard's son John Emil Dahl joined the firm and daughter Irene joined the firm in 1991. In 1998 Dahl Funeral Chapels, LLC was formed, turning the reins to John and Irene, the present generation.