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Matthews International Executive Appointments

Bob — Thu, 26 Feb 2009 01:36:11 +0000

Matthews International, a designer, manufacturer and marketer principally of memorialization products, announced two executive appointments recently.

Jennifer A. Ciccone, Corporate Human Resources Director since 2006, has been appointed Vice President, Human Resources. She’s been with the company since 1998.

Brian D. Walters has been appointed Vice President and General Counsel. He has previously served as Corporate Legal Counsel since 1995.

Love From Grief

Bob — Thu, 19 Feb 2009 17:25:02 +0000

Gene Kincheloe and Mozelle Wales met at a grief counseling group held at Parke’s Magic Valley Funeral Home, in Twin Falls, Idaho. They had both lost their spouses in 2007.

It seemed appropriate to them to marry at the funeral home. On Valentine’s Day.

Death Perceptions

Bob — Thu, 05 Feb 2009 01:02:50 +0000

The Columbus Dispatch did a nice multimedia piece on death in Central Ohio, including an interview with Michael Schoedinger, of Schoedinger Funeral Service. It focuses on the people who deal with death as a way of life, like funeral directors, organ procurement teams, and first responders.

The first articles are here, and the multimedia stuff is here.

An Arresting Service

Bob — Wed, 19 Nov 2008 18:15:39 +0000

Several years ago, when I was training a co-worker, we got caught up in an interesting situation. We knew through some connections that the sheriff’s office was planning on arresting, or at least detaining, the brother of the deceased person we were escorting.

The sheriff’s office asked us to take a particular route, so they could run a traffic stop on the limo where the brother was riding. We declined to take that route, due to safety considerations (they wanted to do a felony traffic stop in the middle of a 4-lane freeway), but gave them a safer, lower-traffic route.

The SO also made contact with the funeral home, had plain-clothes deputies in the service at the funeral home, and driving in the procession. It was all done very carefully, and as respectfully as possible. In the end, deputies waited until after the graveside service was completed, and surrounded their target with several deputies, and he was taken into custody very quietly.

Contrast that with what happened Nov. 15th in Wilmington, North Carolina. New Hanover County Sheriff’s deputies had a warrant to serve, on the son of the deceased. The plain-clothes deputies decided to execute that arrest warrant at the end of the funeral, as the son was loading his father’s casket into the hearse.

In the ensuing pandemonium, the son, Gladwyn Taft Russ III, was Tased, and his sister alleges that deputies pointed their weapons at nearby family members and threatened to shoot them.

Russ had previously agreed to surrender on a variety of charges, but had failed to do so on at least 2 occasions, so deputies felt the funeral was the best time to take him into custody.

Sheriff’s Office Chief Deputy Ed McMahon apologized for his agency’s part in the way things turned out, saying, “It was never my intention to create any more problems for the family, and I am truly sorry and apologize for that. I feel like we should have waited till after the cemetery.”

Not Your Typical Funeral Director

Bob — Tue, 11 Nov 2008 19:30:05 +0000

One thing I learned when I was active in the funeral industry is that there aren’t many stereotypical undertakers any more. There seems to have been a sort of generational shift, where the tall, older, quiet white male has given way to the younger, active, and outgoing person. I’d venture to guess that in Columbus, you’d find about 15% of the licensed funeral directors to be female, and most of those are under 35 (I think. If I goofed, sorry ladies!)

Jacquelyn Taylor admits that she doesn’t look like the stereotypical undertaker, “I’m white and female, and I used to be young,” the fiftysomething mortician says with a laugh.

The Boston Globe has a nice piece on Jacquelyn Taylor, executive director at the New England Institute at Mount Ida College. She talks a bit about the industry, and how she became interested in becoming a funeral director.

And The Caisson Goes Rolling Along

Bob — Sat, 08 Nov 2008 15:15:58 +0000

There are two full-time military horse-drawn caisson sections in the country.

The 3d Infantry - The Old Guard - serves Arlington National Cemetery. The Caisson Section of the Military Honors Platoon at Fort Sam Houston serves Fort Sam Houston National Cemetery. Read more about what the Caisson Section does.

He Put Another Nail in His Coffin

Bob — Tue, 21 Oct 2008 23:00:31 +0000

Actually, Grady Hunter put every nail in his coffin. He built it himself - and won a blue ribbon at the North Carolina State Fair for his woodworking skill.

Hunter, 75, was a bricklayer until his joints wore out. Then he became a homebuilder. He says he’s never lived in a house he didn’t build, and he didn’t want to be laid to rest in someone else’s work, either.

He used walnut for the box, and trimmed it in hard-rock maple and Brazilian Cherry. I saw that done a few times locally. I know there are some Amish craftsmen in the area who can make one pretty quickly; a friend of mine did that for her husband.

I think this is a pretty neat idea, myself, especially when he did it partially out of consideration for his kids. Not having to pick out the casket is good. Being able to say your dad built his own casket is even better.

Escort Dies

Bob — Sun, 13 Apr 2008 04:30:02 +0000

Steven Keith, the 51-year-old funeral escort hit by a drunk driver on 3 April, has died.

Here’s his employer. You can send your condolences there.

A Matter of Common Courtesy

Bob — Thu, 10 Apr 2008 04:30:49 +0000

Stuff like this still occasionally happens, even up here in Central Ohio. I think the coolest time I ever saw it happen was three or four years ago, when 2 young boys, maybe 11 or 12 years old, stopped what they were doing, stood to, and paid their respects to the procession. It wasn’t a nice neighborhood, either, which made it all the more poignant.