About Us

WHAT SETS US APART FROM OTHER FUNERAL HOMES IN AMARILLO, TX

Our history of Boxwell Brothers Funeral Directors spans ten decades and covers an area from the cornfields of Iowa to the Panhandle of Texas.  Howard Boxwell, the oldest of five brothers, wanting an opportunity to be of service to his fellow man, enrolled in Worsham’s School of Embalming in Chicago in the early 1920s.  After finding that the funeral service profession was amenable to a family business, he invited brother Paul Boxwell to join him in Chicago to learn the funeral directing and embalming profession.   After graduation, the brothers, seeking an opportunity to be in business for themselves moved to Greeley, Colorado to join a partnership with a local funeral director.  A few years in Greeley found them wanting an opportunity where more members of the family could join them in the establishment of a family business.  An invitation in the Spring of 1926 brought them to Amarillo to establish their first funeral home in the 700 block of South Polk Street.

With their move to Amarillo, brothers Howard and Paul moved the remainder of the family including their parents, E.E. and Maude Boxwell, three more brothers, Alton Boxwell, Lloyd Boxwell, and Ivan Boxwell, and two sisters, Isabel and Zella to Amarillo to continue their educations and join in the family business.  After all five brothers had graduated from their funeral service education, they joined the family business.  In the mid-1960s, Ivan’s oldest son, James Boxwell, joined the firm and Michael Boxwell returned from his education in 1967.

In 1968, Howard and Paul decided it was time to retire and a new partnership was formed between Alton and Ivan Boxwell to operate the funeral home facilities in Amarillo, Perryton, and Spearman.  The operations in Dumas and Stratford were sold.  With the forming of the new partnership, the move of the Amarillo firm to the location at 2820 Virginia Circle was made.  The partnership was short-lived, however, with the untimely death of Alton from a heart attack.  Ivan became sole proprietor of the three remaining locations with his two sons in Amarillo and Alton’s two sons in Perryton and Spearman.  In the late 1970s, the brothers in Perryton and Spearman were given the opportunity to take over ownership of those funeral homes and Jim and Mike took over ownership and operation of the Amarillo facility.  Today in the operation of the Amarillo funeral home, Jim and Mike Boxwell continue the ownership and operation with the addition of Mike’s two sons, Bart Boxwell and Brad Boxwell. The next generation, Blakely Boxwell Stephens, began her career in the Amarillo office in 2018.  Once again, seeing an opportunity to expand the family business, Bart and Brad have opened new operations in Vega, Claude, Stratford, Panhandle, and have returned to Dumas.

Since their establishment in 1926 in Amarillo, Boxwell Brothers Funeral Directors has become the oldest same family-owned and operated funeral home in Amarillo and the Texas Panhandle.

In 2003, Boxwell Brothers moved from 2820 Virginia Circle to its present location at 2800 Paramount Blvd.

We are thankful for the family that has gone on before us and laid a foundation for Boxwell Brothers today.