Brad Yazel, This is Your Life.

Yazel’s receipt of Dowagiac Rotary Club’s 104th Paul Harris Fellow for community service since the first to Mayor Graham Woodhouse, father of current President Don Woodhouse in 1977, was more like that ’50s TV show with Ralph Edwards than a current one, “Glee.”

Getting Yazel to Elks Lodge 889 for the presentation would usually entail a surprise, but with the unpredictable schedule of a funeral director to contend with, beans were spilled and President-elect Barbara Groner had to forge a sixth avenue of service to keep the guest of honor off guard.

While Shirley Laylin would seem to fit that bill, since she and Yazel needle each other like siblings, Groner settled on a tool kit which also included insights from Brad’s parents.

The presentation produced an unusual sight of all the rabid University of Michigan and Michigan State alumni giving a standing ovation to a Ohio State University graduate, much to the delight of fellow Buckeye Charlie Gratz.

We mention “Glee,” the Fox show choir show celebrating underdogs, because it is set in Lima, Ohio, Yazel’s actual hometown, although he said the heavily industrial city doesn’t even really have a William McKinley High School.

Besides, Dogwood Fine Arts Festival, of which he is president, didn’t want him for his singing and dancing, but the business perspective he could bring to its board.

“This year we honor a very special member of our club,” Groner said. “Brad was going to be on vacation June 2, so that squashed any idea of trying to surprise him. He could be in Ohio or Florida,” where his parents now live near Walt Disney World, to their grandchildren’s delight.

“This award is not a tremendous surprise, but we hope we have a few surprises in store,” she said. “I thought one of the best ways to find out who Brad Yazel is was to talk to his mom and dad, Tom and Judy Yazel, who are now retired from their floral business in Ohio. They had early indications that the floral business was probably not going to be his occupational choice.”

Afternoons after school, Brad’s chores included sweeping floors, helping arrange bouquets and riding around town on deliveries.

“His mom said as early as age 9, when those deliveries included a stop at a funeral home, Brad routinely went exploring,” Groner related. “The embalming room fascinated him. When asked what he wanted to be when he grew up, he declared, ‘I’m going to be a funeral director. Funeral directors help people. Funeral directors wear nice clothes and drive nice cars. And they’ll always have a job.’ How’s that for a prophecy at age 9? His mom also made sure to tell me that Brad was always very good with flower arranging and has taken several flower design classes. He uses those skills with his business today.”

Yazel was already familiar with Paul Harris Fellows because his father is a 55-year Rotarian and his son surprised him with his.

Yazel, club president in 2006-2007, works behind the scenes, designing programs and certificates, such as for the high school basketball shootout the club sponsors. “His children man concession stands and sell tickets. They already know a lot about Rotary and volunteering.”

Groner recalled when Yazel-Clark Chapel’s basement became the storehouse for 300 cartons of goods being shipped to Nicaragua as part of the Children of the Dump project.

When a crew of volunteers had to catalogue their contents, his chapel looked like St. Vincent de Paul’s thrift store for three days.

Yazel catered volunteers’ lunch “because Brad is always thinking about other people,” Groner said. “Brad is an integral part of the Dowagiac community. To find out his involvement, I went to the Yazel-Clark Chapel Web site on the Internet which says he joined the staff of the former McLauchlin-Clark Funeral Home as the managing funeral director in June 2006. He became the owner-manager of Yazel-Clark Chapel in 2009. Brad and his children reside at the funeral home in Dowagiac.

“He is a parishioner at Sacred Heart of Mary Catholic Church at Sister Lakes and a member of the parish council. Brad serves on the ethics committee of Borgess-Lee Memorial Hospital and on the Dowagiac airport advisory board. He is a member of Sister Lakes Lions and Peninsular Lodge 10 of Free and Accepted Masons and Dowagiac Experimental Aircraft Association and Dowagiac Knights of Columbus. This guy is involved in addition to having a very busy business.

“The recent accident had at our airport happened to be Brad’s airplane, but he wasn’t in it. Brad served as a team leader for a disaster recovery team and still feels effects from Hurricane Katrina in 2005. He’s a private pilot and a member of the Taildraggers Flying Club. He enjoys attending his children’s sporting events and loves to create gourmet meals in his kitchen.”

Laylin, one of the Dogwood founders two decades ago, said, “My daughter says Brad and I go back and forth like brother and sister. Brad loves to pick. We took him to lunch and he’s been a very good president. Our meetings are fun. We had a long one the other night after the festival was over, 6 to 10 p.m.

“Brad has a different sense of humor. On my birthday, he backed the hearse in, flags flying, and asked my husband (Mayor Pro Tem Leon Laylin) if I was still breathing. When he left, the phone was ringing off the hook from everyone in the neighborhood wanting to know what was going on. By the time I went down to Dogwood headquarters in Huntington Bank, even the tellers knew he’d been at my door. Barb asked me to tell some ‘inside stories,’ but what happens at those board meetings stays at those board meetings.” Just like Las Vegas.

“We really appreciate you, Brad,” Laylin said. “You could have that job for life.”

First United Methodist Pastor John Kasper could not be present because of a church conference, but sent a letter read by Robert Wagel about working with Yazel on turning the former Groner funeral home on Main Street into ACTION, Area Churches Together in One Network Ministry Center.

ACTION, organized in December 2009, has the purpose of being a Christian collaborative which exists to minister to individuals and families of the Dowagiac area.

“In February 2010,” Kasper wrote, “Brad asked to address ACTION and proposed development of a community center-like facility and program and stated that he felt a faith-based approach would go beyond providing a safety net by offering a holistic approach to overcoming the needs in our area. After laying out his vision for the community, Brad informed us he had purchased what just might be the perfect building, the other funeral home. He offered to assist in the renovation and to provide the facility rent-free” should ACTION share his vision.

“Our goal is that the ACTION Ministry Center will be a centralized location where the poor, broken, suffering and oppressed of our community will be able to find both immediate and long-term assistance,” including a venue for support groups to meet, seminars to be held and occasional community worship events and luncheons, Kasper wrote.

“Brad was the individual with the vision,” Kasper said. “A wonderful community resource will soon be up and running. He continues to act and serves as a source of wisdom for the center.”

Yazel responded, “When I came here, I had dark hair and a much thinner waist. Dowagiac I had only seen on the sign on I-94, going back and forth visiting Michigan relatives many years ago. I had no idea that this place would infect me with the enthusiasm I’ve had. I look around the room, and most, if not all, of us have traveled one road or another working on projects together.

“The sense of community here, even with our challenges from time to time, absolutely can’t be compared to anywhere else. We have people in this little town who have done amazing things, and I’m pleased to have assisted with some of that.

“Yes, I graduated from Ohio State, but I have come to love and appreciate this community and the people in it. It’s been an honor to serve not only in a professional capacity, but in a community capacity. I have a great love and passion for this place and want to see it succeed in the future. Paul Harris is full circle for me because I did give one to my father several years ago. I started to go to Rotary meetings with him at about the same age of my oldest son, Bradley, about 13 or 14 years old in Lima, Ohio. He’s still a member of that club for going on 55 years. My son and Dave Briegel have become good basketball buddies through the shootout. They understand the importance of this organization in our community, which is very gratifying. I’d rather be doing than receiving, but I want to thank all of you for this. Shirley didn’t damage me as much” as he feared, considering he furnished copies of the hearse photos to the Daily News “morgue” in case “there’s ever any reason to get her in line.”

“This means the world to me,” Yazel concluded.