There’s always a risk when a funeral home firm acquires another location.  There’s even more risk when a funeral home acquires a location that has had its license suspended by a state board of funeral directors.

However, as you can read and view in this report from Pennsylvania’s WTAJ-TV News that’s exactly what is happening in Howard, Pennsylvania, with the acquisition of the former Singer-Kader-Neff Funeral Home by the 5th generation firm of Wetzler Funeral Service & Victorian Cremation Services of Bellafonte, Pennsylvania.

What has happened, according to this additional article from the Centre Daily of Centre County, Pennslyvania (which you may not be able to access because of a paywall) is that the former owner of Singer-Kader-Neff Funeral Home has pleaded guilty to abuse of a corpse and with that plea agreement, again according to that article, has had to give up his funeral director license which would prohibit him from working in any capacity within the mortuary field.

The new owner of the mortuary, Wetzler Funeral Service & Victorian Cremation Services owner Dylan Wetzler made these comments in the WTAJ-TV article, “I wasn’t sure if it was something we were going to want to entertain just because of the history.  Coming here to earn the trust of Howard back was going to be difficult. Once you leave, once a family chooses to go to a different funeral home, it’s very tough to get them to come back, especially with what had happened here.”

Wetzler is making “thousands of dollars” worth of renovations to the structure and expects these renovations to be done by the Spring of 2026.  He’s also making a committment to the Howard community by announcing that the funeral home will honor all previously made prearrangements.

Here is the website of the Wetzler Funeral Home and Victorian Cremation Services.

Tom Anderson
Funeral Director Daily

Funeral Director Daily take:  My dad, who was the 3rd generation funeral home owner in our family and who not only operated the funeral home, but also operated a small retail furniture store and liked to accumulate real estate, used to tell me, “You don’t always make your income by how much you sell something for, but by how much you bought it for.”

Dad served on a bank board and also had great relationships with all the bankers in our small community.  It was those relationships which allowed him to purchase distressed real estate for “dimes on the dollar”, improve it, and then sell it for a good profit.  In essence, his profit came not from the high selling price, but the low acquisition cost.

My guess is that is what will happen with this transaction.  Bellafonte and Howard are small communities in Pennsylvania where there is probably not a great amount of choice of funeral home operators.  And, the fact that Bellafonte is only 12 miles from Howard should allow the Wetzler family the ability to service Howard in an economical fashion — possibly folding the work into the existing staff in Bellafonte which would allow for economies of scale in the most expensive category of costs.

In addition, reputations among small rural communities travel fast.  The fact that the Wetzler family has been in business in Bellafonte since 1895 and are in their 5th generation of operation should give comfort to those Howard families and retard any movement to funeral homes in other communities — especially since Wetzler’s will not only be keeping a facility in Howard, but making visible improvements to it.

I think that this is a good reminder that there are all kinds of reasons one funeral home may acquire another one.  It’s also a good reminder that there may be opportunities for funeral homes that might mean taking some reputational risk but that might be able to be funded, because you are taking that risk, with a financial outlay of “dimes on the dollar”.

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“A servant’s attitude guided by Christ leads to a significant life”

Celestis, the memorial spaceflight program for cremated remains, recently lost its spacecraft from the Perseverence flight and the 166 cremated remains and/or human DNA carried with it.  This article from MSN states that the remains “. . . have now been spread across the Pacific Ocean after a malfunction caused the recovery capsule’s parachute to fail.”

Interestingly enough Celestis, which has successfully launched and kept orbiting flights for over 20 years, was operating Perseverance as its first flight to return from orbit and offer relatives the ability to reclaim remains that had been in orbit.  All other previous flights through Celestis have, at least from what I can find out, been intended to remain in permanent orbit.

The following statement appears from Celestis co-founder and CEO Charles M. Chafer on the Celestis website:

The Perseverance Flight carrying the ashes and DNA of 166 participants successfully launched and reached orbit today, Monday, June 23, 2025 aboard The Exploration Company’s Nyx Mission Possible spacecraft. 

The spacecraft completed two orbits around Earth, meeting our criteria for a successful Earth Orbit service, and then initiated its return trajectory, as planned, to complete the Earth Rise service intended. However, we regret to share that an anomaly occurred and the vehicle was lost shortly after re-entry; the root cause is under investigation, resulting in the Nyx capsule impacting the Pacific Ocean and dispersing its contents at sea. 

As a result of this unforeseen event, we believe that we will not be able to recover or return the flight capsules aboard. We share in the disappointment of our families, and we offer our sincerest gratitude for their trust. While there were many successful milestones achieved – launch, orbit, and controlled reentry – this was the first Celestis mission designed to return from orbit, and we recognize the bravery and ambition it required from all involved. We also recognize that no technical achievement replaces the profound personal meaning this service holds for our families. 

In the coming days, our team will reach out to each family individually to offer support and discuss possible next steps. Though we currently believe that we cannot return the flight capsules, we hope families will find some peace in knowing their loved ones were part of a historic journey, launched into space, orbited Earth, and are now resting in the vastness of the Pacific, akin to a traditional and honored sea scattering. We remain committed to serving with transparency, compassion, and care.

According to the Celestis website which you can access here, the cost of this memorialization started at $3,495.  Other options listed on the website range from $4,995 to $12,995.

Tom Anderson
Funeral Director Daily

Funeral Director Daily take:  There are many ways to memorialize a loved one and Celestis is one of the growing options available.  It’s unfortunate that this accident happened, but as we have experienced as Americans, technological issues on space flights cannot be taken for granted.

I’m one that hopes this incident does not set Celestis back.   While burial of the dead with cemetery memorialization was once the almost universally chosen option for humans, I’m of the opinion that the growing number of memorialization options, such as Celestis, Parting Stone, Eterneva, Natural Organic Reduction, and others, offer grief and memorialization solutions for those who believe in something other than earth burial.

It is that growing choice and options that, in my opinion, will give more and more meaning to Memorialization as time moves on.  And, I’m also of the opinion that more meaning to Memorialization will bring greater emphasis and revenue to the growing Death Care community.

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“A servant’s attitude guided by Christ leads to a significant life”