OUR HISTORY
HOUSTON FUNERAL DIRECTORS
AND MORTICIANS ASSOCIATION
The Houston Funeral Directors and Morticians Association was organized in the late 1930’s. At its establishment, the chartered members of the Association were:
• Carl Bames
• John Bedford
• Herbert Bradford
• Heruy Clay
• J. D. Hammond
• I. S. Lewis
• Felton Parnell
• A. L. Walto
Initially, the Association held meetings in the homes of its members. In the early 1940’s (wartime), meetings were held very infrequently due to the gasoline shortage. After the war, the membership increased, and the Association broadened its horizons. The Independent Funeral Directors of Texas, Inc. was already formed at the time. When L. Walton, of Houston, became the President of the Independent Funeral Directors of Texas, Inc., he brought the Houston Funeral Directors and Morticians Association into the Texas association. In later years, the Houston Funeral Directors and Morticians Association became a member of the National Funeral Directors and Morticians Association, Inc., which mandated that in order to become a member, an applicant had to also be a member of their local and state association.
The stated purpose of the Houston Funeral Directors and Morticians
Association is to forward the business and profession of funeral directors by making sure that licensed funeral directors are familiar with the rules and laws that govern the funeral profession, to preserve the good ethics used and practiced by funeral directors, to help its members better serve their families and communities and in assuring that its members are active in their communities so that the communities can become familiar with the ethics of funeral directors.
Meetings of the Association are held every second Tuesday of each month and are sponsored by a local funeral home each time. The membership is composed of a group of licensed funeral directors and embalmers dedicated to making the profession as honorable and professional as possible. Educational seminars are held to provide continuing education credits that its members may use toward license renewals. Training is provided for apprentices to obtain their licenses and yearly scholarships are given through our Scholarship Fund to deserving students in mortuary school. One of the many ways that the Association gives back to the community is by providing food baskets to the needy every Thanksgiving.