Course Information:
Sacred -- Sensitive and Sane
From archaically fines we know that even prehistoric man held the dead in reverence and had funeral ceremonies. Most if not all of these ceremonies became entrenched in the religious customs of the different societies that make up our world. The funeral customs that we are most familiar with are those of the Western European Judo-Christian World that over the past several centuries became uniquely American. It is these funeral customs that we think of as the “Traditional Funeral”. Moreover, as with other traditions and customs they change and are adjusted to met the needs of people. Even within the confines of the “Traditional Funeral” as we know it, there are minor differences both geographically and religiously. Over the past fifty odd years we have been seeing dynamic changes within funeral service. And, like other society changes they can be slow moving and require lengthy periods of adjustment. The successful funeral director is the one who is willing to adjust his own beliefs of the “Traditional Funeral” to met the needs of the client families s/he servers. This course looks at some of those changes and offers suggestions of ways that the modern funeral director can adjust to these changes.
The Author
Jerry Keller graduated from the Kentucky School of Mortuary Science in 1964 and has been involved both directly and indirectly with the Funeral Profession since that time and has been a Certified Bereavement Facilitator since 1997.
Jerry worked in a management consulting roll for the IBM Corporation and took part in a program allowing him to continue his education. Through that program, he received his Ph.D. in Business Administration, from Southwestern University, Metaire, Louisiana. While serving as consultant for IBM, he was involved with providing training in stress management, which included, what to expect at the time of death of a loved one, and assisted employees in recovering from grief and bereavement situations. Jerry has also provided these same services directly to the funeral industry for many years.
