Episode 8: Bob Fells of ICCFA on The Value of the Traditional Funeral

One of my major goals with this podcast is to introduce listeners to a variety of perspectives on the funeral industry and changing death practices. In Episode 3, I talked to Dan Isard, who is a management and financial consultant to funeral homes. In Episode 4, I talked to Caitlin Doughty, who is a non-traditional funeral director in Los Angeles with a critique to the status quo. In the next few weeks you’ll hear from Lee Webster, who has been very active in the home funeral and green burial movements, and from Amy Cunningham, who takes a very thoughtful and non-traditional approach to her second career as a funeral director.

Several questions have emerged from my conversations with these folks, and some fundamental tensions have been revealed in their answers to these questions. Are funerals for the living or the dead? What is a “good” funeral? Are people less interested in rituals than they were before and, if so, why? What are the pressures facing the funeral industry and how should the industry react? Today’s podcast touches on many of these questions, from the perspective of a long-time leader of a funeral and cemetery industry trade association.

There are three major trade associations that represent participants in the funeral and cemetery industries in the United States – The National Funeral Director’s Association, known as NFDA, the Cremation Association of North America, known as CANA, and the International Cemetery, Cremation, and Funeral Association, known as ICCFA. ICCFA was founded in 1887 as the Association of American Cemetery Superintendents. Today it has more than 9,000 member businesses representing all segments of the cemetery, funeral services, cremation, and memorialization profession.

Today’s podcast features my conversation with Bob Fells, who is the General Counsel of ICCFA. Bob was formerly the Executive Director and General Counsel of ICCFA, retiring from his role as Executive Director in 2017. Bob joined the staff of ICCFA in 1983 and has been working on behalf of the funeral service profession on legal and legislative issues since 1975.