I’ve been around the death care business for a long time and I’m certain that I didn’t always make the correct decision in the many hundreds of decisions that I had to make every month. However, I can tell you that I always wanted to “Do the Right Thing.” And, the times when I realized that it turned out that I didn’t do the right thing. . . always bothered me. Doing the right thing isn’t just tied to the […]
This recent article from Pasadena Weekly made note that Better Place Forests has added a property at Lake Arrowhead, about 90 minutes from Los Angeles. For Better Place Forests it is their 10th announced location with five of those being in California. A fairly new entity into permanent memorialization, Better Place Forests is described in the article as “as sustainable alternative to traditional cemeteries”. According to the Better Place Forest website, a memorial package could include the rights to a […]
Arlington National Cemetery, our nation’s national cemetery, is somewhat between a rock and a hard place as they plan the future of the cemetery. I don’t think anybody disagrees with Karen Durham-Aguilera, the cemetery’s executive director when she states, “We want to be open. We want to have that opportunity for that 5-year-old who’s going to raise their hand one day to serve this great nation. So to be able to do that, we need to plan for our future.” […]
It’s been kind of a funny week at Funeral Director Daily. Each day of the week I look for articles pertaining to the death care industry to offer up to my readers. Most deal with funeral business, new products, new ideas, financial results, cemeteries, and the preneed industry. This week, it seems like I’ve done articles on “Reflections” of mine. Today is no exception to that as the fall of Afghanistan brings back memories to me. The memories are centered […]
I’m a big proponent of memorialization of our past history. In the world of death care I take that to mean that I am a proponent of cemeteries with some type of memorial to those whose body or cremated remains lie within. I’m of the opinion that every human being deserves that respect of being “remembered” with some type of marker. I’ll also agree that not everybody agrees with me. And, my viewpoint may be somewhat jaded by serving in […]
Over the history of successful products you will encounter many that the intended use for the product never developed into something big, but another use came into play, many times by accident, that worked out okay for the developers of the product. First, let’s take a quick look at some products that have became very successful somewhat by accident. In the 1920’s an unknown disease caused cattle to spontaneously bleed to death. It was discovered that these cattle had eaten […]
Market forces eventually move ideas and products that become staples of our way of life. However, in almost all cases, private investment is needed to spur the product or service into general practice among the American public. Take the Tesla automobile, for instance. Founder Elon Musk didn’t just take the idea of an electric automobile, grab some old 1957 Chevys and put batteries in them for the public to purchase. A lot of people talked about electric vehicles having a […]
Over the years that I have done the research for the articles that appear in Funeral Director Daily, among others, I have noticed two trends that are definitely growing in the death care world. One of those trends is that of Green or Natural burials. Virtually every day when I look for articles that will be of interest to readers I will find an article from somewhere in the United States that is opening up a funeral home or cemetery […]
As we gather to celebrate Memorial Day 2021 it has been just over a year since the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis. I don’t live too far from Minneapolis and that incident has not only rocked that city and my area, but has been an incident heard all over the world. Add to that the fact that we had a presidential election last fall and riots in our cities last summer and you get to the point where I’ve […]
Upholding to the Covid-19 social distancing rules of the University of Minnesota the graduating class and faculty of the Department of Mortuary Science had to come up with a creative way to make this year’s graduation ceremonies memorable for the graduating seniors. With indoor facilities on campus off limits for this year, the department worked with Minneapolis’ beautiful and historic Lakewood Cemetery to hold the ceremony there on Friday, May 7. Here’s a local news video and print article on […]
