Cornerstone marks 30 years with a month of giving back

By Lethbridge Herald on November 5, 2025.

Alejandra Pulido-Guzman
Lethbridge Herald

Cornerstone Funeral Home is celebrating three decades of serving families in the community with 30 days of giving. 

A hundred days before their grand opening on Nov. 5, 1995, founders Ralph and Faith Zentner, alongside with then Mayor David Carpenter, put shovels in the ground to mark the beginning of construction. 

Travis Zentner, who took over the family business from his parents, and his co-founder father Ralph Zentner sat down with the Herald to reminisce about the last three decades and Travis said that even though the funeral home opened its doors 30 years ago, his family has been serving the community longer than that. 

“We were under the auspices of Coaldale Funeral Home, and they let us serve families through their building way back in the day,” said Travis. 

In terms of the way they are celebrating their 30th anniversary, Travis shared that since their 20th anniversary, and every five years since, they have given back to the community for every year they have been serving the community. Therefore, this year they are giving back for 30 days with a theme of collaboration. 

“We partnered with 30 businesses to give back to the community that has continued to support us. Our mission is to give back, while simultaneously encouraging collaboration and for people to come together as a community,” said Travis. 

Some of the ways they are giving back is by volunteering at the Interfaith Food Bank, cooking breakfast at the Soup Kitchen, helping Streets Alive move to their new building, among dozens more activities. 

While talking about the history of Cornerstone, Travis shared it all began in Humboldt, Saskatchewan where his father Ralph found his calling. 

“My dad experienced the loss of a close friend as a young man due to a snowmobil accident, and the Funeral Director who cared for that boy’s family showed such profound compassion, not just for the family, but for the entire community as it is a small town, that it changed my dad’s life and planted the seed that would eventually grow into Cornerstone Funeral Home,” said Travis. 

Ralph shared that at the beginning, Cornerstone Funeral Home did 17 funerals within the first three weeks after opening their doors and he said it was amazing to see the support from the community right from the start. 

“When we opened, we had an open house for three days and we had well over 1,000 people come through our door. We opened every part of our funeral home and showed them the embalming room, our crematorium, our chapel, and our reception room,” said Ralph. 

He said they were extremely proud to be the first funeral home in southern Alberta to have all the amenities under one roof. 

“Many of the Hindu and Sikh that we serve, want to witness the cremation. So, we can literally go from our chapel and take the deceased to the crematorium and the families can even press the start button,” said Ralph. 

When talking about the origin of the name, Ralph said it has a spiritual and analogical background as Cornerstone references to Jesus Christ as being the cornerstone, but also as a foundation for construction. 

“Every building that is built, has a cornerstone that is usually inscribed with the date that particular “stone” was laid, and we see Cornerstone as strength and trust,” said Ralph. 

He said many funeral homes use their last names within the funeral home’s name, but he believes it takes a team to run a funeral home, and therefore they felt like their last name should not be the only one recognized within the name. 

“We chose a simple name recognizing that all team members are part of serving a family,” said Ralph.  

Travis echoes his words as he recalls growing up being around the business since the age of 12 years old, helping with chores and spending time in his parents’ office during Christmas so their employees could spend time with their families. 

“When I was 12, I started helping with mowing the lawn, washing cars, folding cards for services, vacuuming and other little things that did not required a license for it. I was helping because it is a family business,” said Travis. 

He said he did what he could while attending school and being too young for other things, but when he turned 16 and had a drivers’ license, he joined the transfer team. 

“I was able to bring people’s loved ones into our care because I was able to drive at that point,” said Travis. 

He said that when someone passes away and they need to be transported to the funeral home, there is a group of staff that is on call, as it can happen at any time of the day or night. 

“I was one of those people, I was on call, and I would go and transport the deceased person to our facility from anywhere that was needed. I would also help with evening visitations,” said Travis.