Meet Our Staff - Amarillo, TX

Jim Schooler

Funeral Director

Jim Schooler is a fourth generation funeral director with Schooler Funeral Home and continues to be active in day-to-day activities at Schooler. He is a member of both the Texas Funeral Directors and the National Funeral Directors Association. Jim brings his boundless energy to serving Amarillo through civic organizations such as the Better Business Bureau Foundation, the Amarillo Beautification Committee, and the Amarillo Special Events Venue Board. He is an active member of the Amarillo Chamber of Commerce, the Amarillo Downtown Rotary Club, and St. Thomas the Apostle Catholic Church. Jim supports the Amarillo Opera though his involvement with the Impresario Society.

He enjoys renovating and restoring residential as well as some commercial properties, including three funeral homes. Jim is an advocate for mental health causes and stresses the need for grief counseling and family care, especially for the families of suicide victims. He is currently an active and invaluable member of the board for Hope and Healing Place.

Mary Schooler

Mary Schooler has a great history of volunteerism in the Amarillo community. She is active in promoting women’s health issues as a past honorary chairman of the Panhandle Susan G. Komen Race for the Cure, the co-founder of Women in Touch (for breast cancer survivors), and a member of the Amarillo Breast Health Coalition. Mary chaired the advisory board of Baptist St. Anthony’s Hospice/Olivia’s Angels and she has served on the boards of Meals on Wheels and the St. Anthony’s Hospital Foundation. She is also a longtime volunteer for Meals on Wheels, a member of the Junior League Advisory Council, and the long-standing chairman of the annual Amarillo Community Prayer Breakfast. Mary was on the founding board of the High Plains Food Bank as well as the boards of Catholic Family Service, the Downtown Women’s Center, and Mothers Against Drunk Driving. She was named a Woman of Distinction (1986) by the Amarillo Soroptimists, the Outstanding Sustaining Member of the Junior League of Amarillo, and the Globe News Woman of the Year in 1995. She was honored as the Downtown Women’s Center 2008 Donor of the Year. She is an active member of St. Thomas the Apostle Church. Mary has been a volunteer with the American Cancer Society since 1996, volunteering with the Reach to Recovery visitation program for breast cancer patients, as well as being a Regional Trainer for the Reach to Recovery program. She also has served on the Board of Directors and Breast Health Awareness committee. In addition to volunteering, Mary also supports the American Cancer Society's fundraisers, such as the Cattle Baron’s Ball and Relay for Life.

Bonnie Morrison

Managing Partner/Funeral Director/Embalmer/Certified Celebrant/Licensed Crematory Operator

Bonnie Patrick Morrison was born and raised in Amarillo and graduated from Tascosa High School in 1987.  Her early career was spent in the medical field.  In 1997, she began working at Schooler Funeral Home in Amarillo.  She graduated with as Associates Degree of Mortuary Science with the inaugural class from Amarillo College, under the guidance of Jason Altieri in 2000.  For over the next twenty years she would serve hundreds of Panhandle Families at both Schooler and Angel Funeral Homes.  In 2008 she was promoted to funeral home manager and managed both locations until she resigned her position in 2017 to explore other opportunities in the funeral industry.   Bonnie was active in Rotary, SPCA, and spent many hours supporting and volunteering for local hospices, community organizations and charities.

In 2017, she and her husband, Jim, took a leap of faith and moved across the country to North Carolina. For the next two years she managed Brooks Funeral Home and Crematory in Morehead City, a beautiful coastal town located in Eastern North Carolina.  Although they loved living on the coast, after experiencing two major hurricanes in two years, Hurricane Florence and Dorian, the couple decided to make plans to move back to Texas to be closer to family and further away from hurricanes!  While in Morehead City, she was involved in Crystal Coast Networking and the BBB.

Upon returning to Texas in 2019, Bonnie worked at Robert Massie Funeral Home serving the families of the Concho Valley during the COVID epidemic. In September 2021, the opportunity to return home to Amarillo and to Schooler and Angel Funeral Homes was presented to her and she accepted the position. Coming home means she once again gets to serve the families of the Texas Panhandle and also look forward to spending more time with her two amazing grandchildren, Mazzy and Aslan.  Jim and Bonnie  also have two rescue fur-babies, Monkey and Murphy.

In addition to having years of management and business experience, Bonnie is currently a licensed funeral director and embalmer in both Texas and North Carolina.  She is also a licensed crematory operator, an InSight Certified Celebrant and serves on the Jerry M. Speed Memorial Scholarship Committee. She is excited about plugging back into the community and once again serving the families of Amarillo and the Texas Panhandle. “I absolutely believe I have the best job in the world.  Is it hard, YES! Is it demanding, YES! Does it challenge me each day, mentally, physically and emotionally, YES! And I wouldn’t want it any other way!”

Misty Lemaster

Insurance Processing and Administrative Assistant

Misty has been working for Schooler Funeral Home since August 5, 2002.  Misty works in many aspects of the funeral home and enjoys working with the families that she meets. She has been working in image processing for Valero Energy since 1998. She has a 21-year-old daughter named Brianna, and they are members of Faith Clinic Church.

Monica Rascon

Administrative Assistant

Monica joined our Schooler Family in January of 2022 as weekend receptionist.  She also works at Angel Funeral Home Monday thru Friday. Monica brings excellent customer service and care to the families we serve. 

Patricia Mathis

Lead Funeral Ambassador

• Patricia Mathis has been employed at Schooler Funeral Home for two and a half years as a Funeral Ambassador. Patricia has the opportunity of making a difference in the lives of families we serve while assisting with visitations, rosaries, masses, funeral and/or memorial services. Pat retired after 44 ½ years as the Director of  Opportunity School. She has two children, 4 grandchildren and two great-grandchildren. She spends quality time reading, shopping and traveling with family. Pat is also very involved in her church;  St. John Baptist and she plays active roles in many civic organizations of the city.
  

Eric Miller

Funeral Ambassador

A native Texan, Eric has lived in Amarillo since 1997. He marketed Amarillo across the nation and around the world for the Amarillo Convention & Visitor Council for more than 20 years. He is active in Polk St. United Methodist Church and serves on boards and committees for Palo Duro Canyon State Park, Panhandle-Plains Historical Museum, Historic Route 66 and the Amarillo Zoo. He is starting a freelance writing career, too. He looks forward to serving Schooler’s clients. 

Carl McMillan

Funeral Ambassador

Carl McMillen has been a Schooler Ambassador since 2016 when he began assisting funeral directors in meeting the needs of families. A native of Fort Worth, Carl is a Veteran and a graduate of Howard Payne University. His professional career has included TV Broadcasting and Public Relations for non-profit organizations. Now in his retirement years, he enjoys being with family and making custom knives.

Ramona Giromini

Business Administrator

Ramona is an Amarillo native, graduating from Amarillo College and West Texas State University (now WTA&M).  She began her employment with Schooler Funeral Home in September 2021, shortly after the loss of her husband, Ken.  She is the proud mother of three daughters, Tasha Thomas and her husband Matt, Tyla Gallegos and her husband Nicholas, and Trisha Atchley and her husband Josh.  Ramona is a very active member of St. Ann's Catholic Church in Canyon. 

Scott Edwards

Part Time Funeral Director and Ambassador

I was born and raised in Amarillo, Texas. I graduated from WTAMU in 1992 with a Bachelor of Science degree in Business Administration. I retired from AT&T as a Senior Manager-Marketing in 2006 after 26 years of service. I then graduated from Amarillo College School of Mortuary Science in 2007 and have been a licensed Funeral Director here ever since.  I have been an active member of First Christian Church for many years. I am the past Chairman of the Worship Committee, a former Diaconate and have recently been re-elected to my fourth term to serve as Elder. I retired as a volunteer for 25 years with the Eveline Rivers Christmas Project, serving as a board member in 2006 and then as President of the Board of Directors for 2011. I take my role as Funeral Director/Ambassador very seriously and I make every effort to serve the families I help in a comforting, caring and professional manner. Scott and his husband, Jason love to travel, read and are definitely movie buffs. They also stay busy raising their two labs, Sienna Grace and Truffles Lynn.

Brandon Blassingame

Funeral Director & Embalmer

Brandon was born in Amarillo in September 1986. He lived most of his life in the Amarillo area and surrounding Panhandle areas. After graduating from Palo Duro High School, he was given the opportunity to work for a local funeral home in what he thought would be a maintenance position. On the first day, he was asked to drive a limousine and then was sent to help in other areas of the funeral home. After watching the funeral director engage a family, he was immediately intrigued. 

Following his first summer with the firm, Brandon made the decision to enroll in Amarillo College School of Mortuary Science to obtain his Associate's Degree. As it is in most of life, life happens, and following the loss of his first son in 2008, Brandon decided to step away from the funeral profession. 

He spent the next five years in various career fields before running into an old friend who owned a local mortuary service. After a couple of years of working multiple jobs, including weekend call shifts for the mortuary, Brandon decided to get back to school and finish his degree. 

Brandon graduated from Amarillo College in 2017 and obtained his funeral director and embalmer license in 2018. Following a brief stint with another Amarillo firm, Brandon joined the Schooler and Angel Funeral Home Family in 2021, and as he says, "I finally found my place." 

Brandon looks forward to coming in each day to serve the community of Amarillo with the utmost dignity and integrity that the citizens of Amarillo have come to expect from Schooler Funeral Home. 

When not serving the families of Amarillo, Brandon spends his time watching his son play football and relaxing with his wife. In 2022, his family grew by one more when their niece joined the household. Together the four of them enjoy life at a slower pace and take it all in, making memories to be cherished until the long afterlife reaches its final sunset.