What does a funeral director do? Well, the tasks have changed in recent times. In earlier days, the term mortician was used or undertaker, but now would be considered antiquated terms, much like funeral parlor or mortuary has been simply replaced with funeral home. There was a time when funeral homes were family owned and operated and passed down through generations. This too has become quite a thing of the past. There are a number of folks still eager to start their own, but the majority has no family heritage in the profession. Big business has done a fine job of extinguishing the generational operations. Once considered a male dominated field, the number of females entering the profession has risen dramatically in recent years.

Funeral Directors perform a variety of tasks to arrange and conduct funeral services, such as coordinating transportation of deceased to mortuary for embalming, holding conferences with decedent’s family or other authorized person to arrange details, procuring ministers for religious rites, and providing transportation for mourners.  In independent or small firms, the funeral director may personally handle all details from the initial call from the family, all the way through to the interment. However, in most corporate firms, especially in large, metropolitan areas, “care centers” have been created. These are locations where embalmers handle the tasks of transporting the deceased from the place of death to the care center and either embalm or place in cold storage in cases of cremation only. Generally, these care centers also house company vehicles, such as hearses and limousines. This allows them to be dispatched and scheduled for the funeral homes that are having services. Funeral directors are generally assigned a family and hold an arrangement conference to cover funeral service details. In the corporate world, the funeral director that initially meets with a family may not necessarily direct the funeral service. The assigned service director will actually direct the funeral service as scheduled. It is important that service directors become familiar with locations of churches, all aspects of different faiths and cultures, church and service logistics and planning, cemeteries, clergy and crowd control. 

So, what about the pay? According to careeroverview.com, the low hourly wage is approximately $13.66, while the median hourly wage is 23.86, and the high-end hourly wage is 44.14. Based on a full-time, year around schedule, annual salaries are reported as, lower end 28,400, median 49, 600, while high-end 91,800. My personal experience has shown that wages in most areas tend to be on the lower end of the scale. The corporate titans have moved in, dominating the industry and in their quest for shareholder value, have driven wages low. In recent years, they have found ways to monopolize and eliminate positions. In 2009, a corporation based in Houston, Texas eliminated a high number of positions, removing managers and reducing funeral directors in some instances, to one funeral director per funeral home. This was done while the company increased their prices.  Some states require a Bachelors degree, though most only require an Associate of Applied Science. There are a number of schools throughout the country dedicated to funeral service education.

Note: Author has been a licensed funeral director and embalmer for more than ten years. He may be reached at patton.james38@yahoo.com.