The Wake

Dark clouds hung over Washington Avenue as I, gently misted by the drizzling rain, sought refuge with a descent to the second floor of the Mayo Building. The bright lights in the hall stood out in stark contrast to the proposed purpose of my investigation. Little did I expect that my venture into the mortuary science department would reveal more than morbid dreams and death.

The University of Minnesota mortuary science department was founded almost a century ago in 1908. There are 54 schools in the United States offering mortuary science programs, most of these only two-year associate programs. The University of Minnesota is one of only four in the country offering a bachelor’s degree in mortuary science, and the only one with a mortuary department housed within a medical school. Students usually complete two years of general requirements at the university or other institution before enrolling in the program. Only 30 new students are admitted to the program each year. Intensive prerequisites and high standards of admission account for only a part of the program’s strong nationwide reputation. The accredited program also maintains relationships with about forty funeral homes in the Twin Cities area, offering hands-on experience and internships to students.

Michael LuBrant, director of the program for three years, was the first to institute the clinical learning model currently in place, inspired by his observations of students in other medial disciplines. Under the old system, a post-graduation internship was the only hands-on experience required of mortuary science majors. Today, all students are required to work in a funeral home for nine hours every week from the start of their studies, in addition to the eight-week internship following graduation. State and national exams are also required before a graduate can obtain a mortician’s license.

In some states, separate licenses exist for embalmers and funeral directors. In Minnesota, the two aspects are combined under the title of mortician. John Locke, a senior in his final year of the mortuary science program, explains, “Embalming is the bread and butter of mortuary science, but you also have to learn to deal with the families.”

Mortuary science is heavily concerned with the planning of funerals and helping people through the process of losing a loved one. In fact, many students have been inspired to study mortuary science after their own positive experiences with a helpful and understanding funeral director. This particular emphasis on the psychological side of loss is another factor contributing to the department’s reputation.

“We work with the living more than the dead,” says LuBrant. “Funeral directors walk alongside the family at a time when they are most vulnerable, from the moment of death until the final disposition.”

According to LuBrant, a successful funeral director must be sensitive, empathetic, a good listener, and comfortable working under extreme pressure and with diverse people. The funeral director must be creative in working with people of various cultural practices and spiritual beliefs. Furthermore, the nature of the work often requires long hours and a 24/7 on-call status.

LuBrant points out a common misconception that most people who study mortuary science do so because they have family in the business. However, while over 90 percent of the funeral homes in Minnesota are family-owned and -operated, less than 20 percent of the mortuary science students come from a family history of mortuary work.

Doug Nohava, another senior currently finishing his mortuary science degree, is a part of this minority. After a summer working with his father in a South Dakota funeral home, Nohava continued work at another funeral home throughout his high school years. This experience gave him an immediate look at the intensity of such a job, the long hours, and the ever-present possibility – especially pronounced in his small town community – of burying friends and neighbors. Rather than turn him away from the career, the experience only strengthened his interest. “I saw that it is a very noble job,” Nohava says.

Nohava’s first-hand experiences bolstered his career choice, and LuBrant suggests that prospective mortuary science students talk to funeral directors in their families or communities to look for similar job-shadowing opportunities.

Slightly disappointed that I was not invited to a personal encounter with a cadaver, I prepared to venture back into the cloudy cool of an October afternoon. Before concluding my interviews, I asked if there were any other misconceptions about mortuary science that need be laid to rest.

“People generally think that mortuary science is all death and darkness,” Locke says, “but we’re just normal people and normal students. Someone has to do this job and we’re the ones who are going to do it.”