Edward R. "Dick" Boylan, the founder of Boylan Funeral Home, was born and raised in New Brunswick, NJ.

He attended Saint Peter's High School and worked in the Saint Peter's Cemetery, where his grandfather was the superintendent.

After graduating high school, Dick served in the National Guard before entering The McAllister School of Mortuary Science in Manhattan. Upon his graduation from mortuary school he served his internship at the Maher Funeral Home before starting his own business.

He was the owner/operator of the Boylan Funeral Home in New Brunswick and Edison for 45 years. He also worked as Middlesex County morgue keeper for 38 years, retiring in 1993. He served in the National Guard in the early 1950s. He was a member of the Middlesex-Somerset County Funeral Directors Association, N.J. Funeral Directors Association, and National Funeral Directors Association. He was a life member and P.E.R. of the New Brunswick Elks Lodge 324; and member of the Knight of Columbus Council 257, New Brunswick, and Franklin Eagles-Aerie 1329. He was a former member of the New Brunswick Board of Education. He was a generous sponsor of the Franklin Township Little League; a member of Lions Eye Bank Foundation of N.J., St. Vincent DePaul Society of New Brunswick and Sierra Club of New Brunswick, and a board member of the Salvation Army of New Brunswick.

An active member of Saint Peter's Church in New Brunswick, he received the Flame of Charity Award from the Diocese of Metuchen for his outstanding generosity from 1983 to 1986. He received the Msgr. James A. Harding Medal in 1996 for Business and Industry.

He was also an avid fisherman.

He and his wife lived above the funeral home and raised their seven children. Two of whom became licensed funeral directors.

Edward R. "Dick" Boylan died in November of 2003.