Important Names in Funeral Service History
Karma
(Hinduism and Buddhism) the effects of a person's actions that determine his destiny in his next incarnation
Anton van Leeuwenhoek
Father of microbiology
Prince Greer
First African American embalmer in the US
William Hunter
First to successfully adopt arterial injection as a means of preservation; anatomist and doctor
A. Johnson Dodge
Founder of Dodge chemicals. principal of Massachusetts college of embalming
Joseph Clarke
Founder of what would later be known as the Cincinnati College of Embalming:
Jean Gannal
French chemist who developed early embalming methods including injection through the carotid arteries. Author of History of Embalming
International Conference of Funeral Service Examining Boards
ICFSEB; the agency responsible for production, administration, and integrity of the National Board Exam; 'The Conference'
Hudson Samson
Invented and oval shaped hearse with 8 posts for decoration in 1889
Samuel Rogers
Invented the trocar
Leonardo da Vinci
Italian painter and sculptor and engineer and scientist and architect
International Order of the Golden Rule
Provides management assistance and promotional programs; education, especially on FTC and OSHA, and to hold to the premise of "do unto others as you would have them do unto you."
John Hunter
Scottish anatomist credited with the discovery of "Hunters Canal."
Dr. William Harvey
The individual who is credited with the discovery of the circulation of blood is
Dr. Richard Harlan
The man who translated Jean Gannal's "History of Embalming" in 1834 and thereby made embalming available to the American public was
Edwin Chadwick
advocated modern sanitary reforms that resulted in Britain's first Public Health Act.
Monument Builders of North America
an international trade association of persons and firms in the memorial industry
National Concrete Burial Vault Association
an organization of concrete burial vault manufacturers, whose purpose is to provide a unified voice for the concrete burial vault industry, and to continually research and develop, then specify and promote minimum performance standards.
Crane and Breed
associated with the introduction and development of early funeral transportation
Auguste Renouard
author of The Undertaker's Manual, the first book published specifically as an embalming textbook in the United States.
Jewish Funeral Directors of America (JFDA)
chartered in 1928 to secure harmony in the profession among Jewish funeral directors and elevate the practice of the profession.
Frederick Ruysch
considered the "father of embalming," the first to refine the technique of arterial injection of a preservative into the vascular system.
Butlerov and Hofman
discovered formaldehyde
National Association of Colleges of Mortuary Science
established in 1942 as an organization for privately sponsored schools with the goal of advancement of mortuary education
Dr. Thomas Holmes
father of modern embalming in the US
James Cunningham
featured a funeral car radically different from the prevailing style at the 1884 New Orleans Cotton Exposition. Rectangular and had a hop roof, five urns, and at each corner- a gilded column around which there climbed ivy vine in green.
Undertakers Mutual Protective Association
first formal organization of undertakers; kept a black book of objectionable and delinquent customers to be shared among members only; originated in Philadelphia, January 1864.
National Funeral Directors and Morticians Association
incorporated in 1938 as National Negro Funeral Directors and Morticians Association; present name adopted 1957; established to represent specific interests of African-American funeral directors.
University Mortuary Science Education Association
organization of college & university based funeral service programs established in 1961.
Fred Hulberg
patented a gas powered undertaker's buggy
J. Anthony Gaussardia
patented a process of embalming involving the injection of an arsenic-alcohol mixture.
