Staff members of Petersen Family Funeral Home are caring and experienced professionals who understand that each family is unique and has personal requests and traditions.
Gregg Petersen
Owner
Gregg Petersen, the senior partner of Petersen's Funeral Home, joined the family owned firm in 1970. Over the years, Gregg has developed a vast experience in working with area churches and cemeteries. His many years of service have spanned many generations of families. Gregg has been a part of the many changes in funeral service and understands the needs of families for services from the traditional to the contemporary. He is proud of the flexibility in serving families that being family owned allows.
Gavan G. Petersen
Embalmer
Gavan was born and raised in Newton, Kansas. He graduated from Newton High School in 1991. He received his BA degree from the Emporia State University and has a degree from the Kansas City school of Mortuary Arts. He is proud to be a third generation Petersen and has worked in his family’s business since middle school where he began by washing vehicles after school. Gavan is our monuments manager and heads our monument branch store Quality Monuments. Gavan is involved with many community projects and the development of Camp Hawk to provide free activities to young families and youth groups. He is also a supporter of "Girls Club" an organization to help young girls with their self-esteem, friendships and over all "well being". Gavan is an individual of traditional values. He strongly believes that the "viewing" at the visitation is vital for activating your support system and allows others to express their concern and love for you.
Charlie Robinson
Funeral Director
Charlie is a funeral director at Petersen's Funeral Home. He has worked for the company for 18 years. He started out washing cars and mowing the grass and eventually worked his way up. He also worked at a funeral home while attending Kansas State. In his spare time he enjoys tending to his back yard poultry and his dogs. He also enjoys presidential history and Kansas art and artists.
Cindy Simons
Office Administrator
Cindy joined our team in November of 2016 as our office administrator. She works 3 days a week and as needed to keep up with our death certificate filing and insurance claims for our families. Cindy can be found answering many questions families have as they complete their estates and final arrangements. Cindy also works funeral services with us and helps care for our families as they walk thorough the funeral and memorial process. She looks forward to serving our families and finds working at Petersen Funeral Home a rewarding experience. Cindy is active in Business Professional Women and is currently serving as state president. In her spare time she enjoys golfing with her friends and spending time with her husband Craig.
Erin Roush-Bearce
Embalmer
Jonathan Carey
Assistant Funeral Director
Our History
Petersen Funeral Home is a family owned and run funeral home. Petersen Funeral Home was founded January 1, 1961 by Tom and Ada Petersen. Tom Petersen’s goal was to create and maintain the finest funeral services in the Newton area.
In 1970, Gregg Petersen, the son of Tom and Ada, joined the funeral home. Today, Gregg Petersen’s son, Gavan Petersen, oversees the everyday details of the funeral home. Today the staff is made up of a team of 3 Funeral Directors, Charlie Robinson, Cheryl Switzer & Brian Crawley. Brian and Cheryl are also the Embalmers for the funeral home.
For nearly fifty years the Petersen family and their employees have served families with the respect and dignity that their loved ones deserve. The Petersen’s and their professional staff know and understand the special needs of this area and can help and guide out of town families through this time.
Petersen’s has continued to be the most trusted name in funeral service in Newton. We are a full service facility that offers a large chapel for traditional and memorial services. Although most families choose some form of a traditional service, Petersen Funeral Home provides varied options for those families who prefer cremation. Petersen Funeral Home was the first funeral home in the Newton area to have an individual cremation arrangements room to serve our customer’s cremation needs.
We are proud to say that families in this area know and trust Petersen Funeral Home. We offer fair and reasonable prices and provide a high quality of service that the community has come to know and expect.