Standard in Funeral Service Death Care Expert Witness

Summary of qualifications:

I have been providing consulting services in funeral service, cremation, and cemetery related matters, as well as loss prevention, risk management, and operations, for more than twenty years. I have provided sworn testimony, qualifying as an expert in twenty-three states, and six U.S. District Courts, as well as before the U.S. Patent and Trademark Board. My education, National Board Certification, and experience meet or exceed the requirements for a funeral director and/or embalmer, in all fifty states. I began my funeral service career in 1973. I have been certified as a Funeral Director and Embalmer by the Conference of Funeral Service Examining Boards since 1982. I am certified in Cremation Operations by The Cremation Association of North America.

Consultations have included cremation protocol, practice, and customary practice, embalming protocol, practice, and customary conduct, and funeral service practice and customary conduct, and experience relating to burial and entombment/inurnment issues. Clients include attorneys, insurers, and death-care providers

Past President of the Los Angeles County Funeral Directors Assn., and a former board  member of the California Funeral Directors Association, and a member of its ethics and professionalism committee. I’ve been a licensed funeral service professional since 1982 and an owner of funeral homes, in three states, beginning in 1973.

I have personally embalmed thousands of human remains, and have personally conducted thousands of funeral services, from initial contact through final disposition, for people of diverse belief systems.
After the merger of my business in 1996, I served as Western Division Vice President & Chief Operating Officer for Stewart Enterprises, a major international funeral service and cemetery concern, with total responsibility for the operation of fifteen locations, which included mortuaries and crematories.

Education:

1965-1970  Fairleigh Dickinson University    Madison, New Jersey
B.S. – Economics
1979-1981 Catonsville College – Mortuary Science    Catonsville, Md.
A.A. – Mortuary Science Certificate – Graduate

Accreditations:

Continuing Education – Academy of Professional Funeral Service Practice

National Board Certified –  Funeral Directing & Embalming – Conference of Funeral Service Examining Boards – 1982
Cremation Association of North America – Crematory Operations Certification – 2014

Member Los Angeles County Funeral Directors Association
Affiliate Member Florida Association of Independent Funeral Directors

Currently licensed in California, first in 1987. Previously licensed in Pennsylvania , first in 1982

Awards received:

Commendation from Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors for professionalism and assistance to Supervisors and the Office of Chief Medical Examiner-Coroner.

Publication:

More than seventy of my peer-reviewed articles on all aspects of the death care industry topics have been published in MORTUARY MANAGEMENT, an industry trade mainstay, which has been published since 1914. The monthly readership is in excess of ten thousand death-care professionals.