Dil’s Funeral Services was founded in 1960 by Wilfred T. and Gloria Dil in Birkenhead on Auckland’s North Shore.
The company started originally as Wilfred T. Dil Funeral Director and operated out of the family home at 82 Hinemoa Street, Birkenhead. Wilf and his wife Gloria converted one end of the house into a small chapel and viewing area, and lived in the rest of the house with their four children Christine, Lindsay, Leonie and Pauline. Lindsay and his sisters all recall, from those early years, having to be quiet children when funerals were on.
The company operated out of the premises until the early 1970s when Dil’s moved along the road to where our Birkenhead Chapel is still located at 92 Hinemoa Street.
This property, which has been a funeral home since it was built in the 1950s, was where Wilf worked for local funeral director, Vern Cox who, when he retired, offered to sell the business to Wilf. However, at the time Wilf was not in a position to buy the business and the firm sold to someone else who did not require Wilf’s services.
While working at his next job in a local hardware store, Wilf missed his life with the funeral services company, and it didn’t take long for him to realise that he had developed a real passion for funeral directing - it was, in fact, what he wanted to do with his life.
Wilf’s own business
The family business began. In that first year, Wilf conducted only 13 funerals, continuing to work at the hardware store to supplement the family income. In those days, when a call came in, he would leave the store and ride his push-bike to collect his old hearse, which he parked at a friend’s house in Takapuna.
Wilf was known as a true people’s person with a genuine interest in everyone he met. He conducted funerals in a way that reflected this interest in people and their families.
In time the company grew, with Wilf and Gloria building the business on their love of people and a philosophy that nothing was too much trouble,
Wilf and Glori
a’s son, Lindsay, joined the company in 1973 as he completed his law degree at Auckland University: he soon decided follow a career in funeral services and forgo a career in law.
A stunning facility
In 1994, Dil’s North Harbour Chapel and Reception Lounge, in Schnapper Rock Road, Albany, opened in response to the needs of the local community. This stunning facility in park-like grounds can accommodate funerals of all sizes and has become a real asset to the families of the North Shore and Greater Auckland.
Wilf and Lindsay had driven past the property many times on their way to the adjacent North Shore Cemetery and Crematorium and always knew it would be the perfect location for a funeral home.
This facility has exceeded everyone’s expectations and has had thousands of people though its doors to attend the many funerals conducted there.
Some thought Lindsay and Wilf were crazy when the idea was mooted to put a funeral home in the middle of a rural area but, looking back, the chapel is a monument to their vision and innovation.
A visionary for the future of funerals
Vision and innovation have always been the hallmarks of our company. From the very beginning, Wilf embraced many ideas which have now become popular at modern funerals. He had the flexibility to evolve the business so that services organised by Dil’s would always be meaningful and representative of changing times – and he believed in finding out what people wanted and doing everything possible to provide them with their wishes.
Now in its third generation of family owne
rship, Dil’s Funeral Services is run by Wilf’s grandson Stephen, who took over from his father Lindsay in April 2005.
Dil’s Funeral Services is a member of the Funeral Directors Association of New Zealand (FDANZ). We are also members by invitation of Selected Independent Funeral Homes, an international organisation that recognises excellence in funeral services.
