Byline: CHRISTOPHER RINGWALD Staff writer
Demographics and economics have created a boom in mortuary science courses as older workers, often displaced by downsizing, train alongside younger students learning to prepare and bury the dead, whose numbers will grow as the baby boom ages and dies.
Hudson Valley Community College on Saturday graduated 38 students from the mortuary sciences program -- the largest class ever.
Since 1990, enrollment of new students has risen 37 percent and graduates are up 34 percent, said Elaine Reinhard, who chairs the department. Many students are older people, including several former factory workers whose tuition is covered by federal retraining programs established to ameliorate the effects of free trade with Mexico and Canada. To accommodate these students, the school recently added evening classes.
One student is Vicki Campbell, 46, a gracious, black-haired woman with an attentive manner. After her son grew up and left home, she quit her bank job of 21 years, sold her home and entered the two-year program at Hudson Valley.
``I have always been a service person and this is the ultimate in service,'' Campbell said, standing amid caskets on display at William Leahy Funeral Home in Troy, where she works part time. The home is now owned by the Loewen Group, one of several vast chains that have bought up scores of homes and altered the terrain of a business traditionally dominated by private, family-owned firms.
Campbell wanted a job that was neither too corporate nor routine. She is among a wave of people entering the field.
Last year, there were 3,022 new students enrolled in such programs across the nation -- up 26 percent from 1990, according to the American Board of Funeral Service Education. And 2,168 graduated in 1995 -- up 33 percent over five years.
Hudson Valley's is one of five mortuary science programs in the state. The others are at SUNY's Canton campus, Simmons Institute of Funeral Service in Syracuse, the American Academy of McAllister Institute in New York City and Nassau Community College. Among other reasons for the increased interest are growing opportunities in grief counseling, which many funeral homes now offer; a rise in family establishments up for sale as owners retire; the emergence of undertaking as a 40-hour-a-week job; and continued demand.
``With corporations buying homes, the hours can be better. A funeral director knows they won't have to work all day and night, as they would in a family establishment,'' said Reinhard. Campbell said that as an employee of a large corporation, she would enjoy a schedule, a pension and health plan -- plus, she said, better opportunities as a woman in a male-dominated field.
Women in the program at Hudson Valley now count for 36 percent of the program's students -- up from 20 percent in 1990.
Of course, some of those entering the field know the market is guaranteed and growing.
``In general, people always assume there will be work,'' said Reinhard.
Among her classmates, Campbell said half were younger students, many with families in the business. The rest were older, some retired police officers or ex-nurses and service workers -- one a factory worker who had been laid off three times.
``He wanted a job that was secure, and unless they find a cure for death . . . , '' Campbell said, trailing off with a smile.
Though the death rate will continue to decline due to improved health care, ``there will be substantial increases in the number of deaths because of the aging of the population,'' said Jeff Lancashire of the National Center for Health Statistics. ``From that perspective, undertaking should be a growing industry.''
In 1994, 2.286 million people died. According to U.S. Census projections, that will increase to 2.357 million in 2000 and 3.079 million in 2025.
After graduation, Campbell will have to pass a national exam, basically the funeral boards, and then serve a one-year residency at a funeral home. She will then take New York state's mortuary law test in order to be certified as a funeral director.
Increasingly, many fledgling undertakers have no previous connection.
``There are more people in it that are not family members,'' said David Ginsburg, who founded Ginsburg Memorial Chapel in Colonie two years ago. ``At one time, a person going into it out of the blue, as myself, was the exception.''
Many professionals have found new work counseling loved ones. Some homes even run support groups.
``It's certainly an area that is growing in this country,'' said Reinhard. ``Groups fill up. Sometimes you can't hold enough.''
Some critics assert that undertakers are simply claiming a role once filled by friends and relatives.
``The family and friends aren't doing it,'' Reinhard responded. ``It's not a conversation that people want to have.''
The history of death in America largely has been one of a growing distance between the deceased and the family. In former times when a person died, the family and neighbors prepared and buried the corpse. Today, even though some homes will use a casket built by a family member, few customers express an interest, said Reinhard.
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Times Union/STEVE JACOBSVICKI CAMPBELL, 46, quit her bank job of 21 years and entered the mortuary sciences program at Hudson Valley Community College.
