“This is one of my favorite portraits in the exhibition. I photographed Mr. Bibber first thing on a very cold January morning. The sun was reflecting intensely off the snow, which sent a very eerie mist rising up behind him.”

The Bibbers first came to town in 1938. Richard Bibber was born a year later and grew up in Kennebunkport but moved to Kennebunk in 1956, when his father, Earl Bibber, purchased the historic property at 67 Summer Street to serve as Bibber Memorial Chapel. Richard graduated from Kennebunk High School in 1957 and from the New England Institute of Anatomy and Sanitary Science in Boston in 1959. He joined his father in the family business, which for 40 years included running an ambulance service, because in those days almost all funeral homes also operated ambulances for their respective communities.

Richard Bibber is a current trustee of Kennebunk Savings Bank, current member of Rotary, Past Potentate of the Kora Shriners, and a former selectman for the Town of Kennebunk. He has been a member of the Kennebunkport Volunteer Fire Department and a 28-year veteran of the Kennebunk Fire Department, for which he also served as deputy chief. Through his career with Bibber Memorial Chapel, he is also a member of several associations for funeral directors, including the Maine Funeral Directors Association (past president), Maine State Board of Funeral Service (chairman of the board), and former board member of Selected Independent Funeral Homes®, serving as its president in 2004-2005. It is the plaque he was awarded from this worldwide professional association that Richard Bibber loaned to the Museum for inclusion in the FACES exhibition.

Richard Bibber and his sons Douglas and Edward are now Kennebunk’s second and third generations of funeral directors.

“The Kennebunks represent. . . a great place to raise a family. Really, it is. We’re fortunate to be close to the metropolitan areas of Boston and Portland, and our beaches are a great asset.”