Our History

In 1917, Andrew Joseph (A.J.) Kucko began his career on Exchange St. in Akron. The business remained in downtown Akron until 1927, when the company constructed its second location on the corner of Grant and Wheeler Streets. Forced to move by Urban Renewal, Mr. Kucko opened his next facility at 123 East Waterloo Rd. in 1963. It was during the years at the East Waterloo that the funeral home experienced the most dramatic and in some events traumatic changes.

Mr. Kucko was forced to turn over the reins of the company he began to his son Tom Kucko following a serious heart attack. During Tom's tenure, the firm acquired a new name, Kutsko-Hecker. Kutsko was considered a phonetic spelling of the original Kucko and Curt Hecker, a long time employee of the firm was made a minority shareholder. Tom managed the company until its sale to his sister and her husband Patricia and Paul Anthony in 1969. Under Paul Anthony's leadership the firm name was changed to the Kucko-Anthony-Hecker Funeral Home and operated as such until the untimely and tragic deaths of Paul and Patricia Anthony on February 26, 1974. Following the defection of Mr. Hecker and a brief period of management by Mark Hayden (ending with his unexpected death in 1975) and James Burtchin, David Anthony assumed the helm and the firm became known as the Kucko-Anthony Funeral Home.

David eventually acquired full ownership of the firm and engineered the move, in 1987, to our current location at 95 West Waterloo Rd. with construction of a new facility. In conjunction with the opening of the new building was the merger with Stephen A. Kertesz of the Kertesz Funeral Home creating the Kucko- Anthony-Kertesz Funeral Home. In 1993, Dave and Steve added 7,000 square feet to the home, becoming the Akron area's largest facility and the first to provide a community room for memorial luncheons. In 1997 Earl Stampfle joined our family until his death in 2001. Our next project was the construction of a separate facility in the City of Green in 2000. David and twenty-year director Dean Biscan opened a 6000 square foot facility located at 4178 Massillon Road (corner of Steese and Massillon Roads) under the name of Anthony and Biscan Funeral Home.

In November of 2002 the Kucko-Anthony-Kertesz Funeral Home and Anthony and Biscan Funeral Home joined forces with the McGowan-Reid and Santos Funeral Home in Cuyahoga Falls to become the Anthony Funeral Homes we are today.

We are celebrating the opening of our newest facility at 1990 South Main Street in Akron. Our old building at 95 W. Waterloo was purchased by the Veteran’s Administration for expansion. The new facility is 14,000 square feet and features wide screen plasma monitors in the chapels for memorial video presentations.