Ross Martin and his son, Tom, are lifelong funeral directors at the family's Martin Funeral Home on Center Avenue on Butler's South Side.

Ross Martin celebrates his 58th year as a funeral director this year.

“Its a demanding business, but it is one you do in service to the community,” he said, adding a lot has changed in his more than half century working with families.

When Ross Martin started in 1952, he was required by state law to attend one year of mortuary school and to serve one year as an apprentice with an established funeral home.

John Eirkson, executive director of the Pennsylvania Funeral Directors Association, said the state now requires funeral directors to complete two years of liberal arts studies on the college level, one year of mortuary school and two years as an apprentice.

Ross Martin said, “Back when I got started, you got to pick which you wanted to do first, so I did the apprenticeship first, and I think that helped me later in school.”

Apprentices do a lot of the routine work, Ross Martin said, such as washing cars and cleaning the funeral home. But it also allowed him to get used to the work and decide if this was the right career for him.

“The first time I tried, I lasted the first week and then quit,” he said. “But six months later, I came back and it was all right.”

Both Ross and Tom Martin said there are a lot of aspects about being a funeral director that a person — who may need a funeral director only a few times in his or her lifetime — doesn't know.

“This is a 24-7 job,” Tom Martin said. “You are always on call.”

Ross Martin said a survey in a trade publication had a new mortuary school student saying he wanted to be a funeral director who worked five days a week, eight hours a day and earned $55,000.

“It doesn't work that way,” he said.

On top of the hours, Ross Martin said, funeral directors are working with people who are sad or distraught, which can take a large emotional toll on the directors “if you let it. You have to just say to yourself this is the job and take care of people with efficiency and kindness, and kind of block off the rest or you won't make it.”

Eirkson said this is true, but the public should know in Pennsylvania for the most part, they are dealing with funeral directors who are their small-town friends and neighbors.

The association has about 3,000 members, most of whom, with their families, own smaller funeral homes.

“These are small businesses in one of the most regulated industries in the country,” Ross Martin pointed out.

Federal and state consumer protection, health standards and even the federal Occupational Safety and Health Administration tell funeral homes how to do their business.

“But we make sure it all gets done while helping families through the process,” Tom Martin said.

Meeting government standards, the cost to run a home and the unknown schedule sometimes leave funeral home directors without someone to pass the business on to.

Eirkson points out that most funeral directors continue to work late in life, with many in their late 60s through their 80s.

“Families have seen what their parents have done to keep the business growing and have decided its not for them,” he said.

Of Ross Martin's five children, only Tom became a licensed director, although most still help at the funeral home with families and guests during viewings and services.

“Its hard work, but its also something you hope you're getting right,” Ross Martin said.

Eirkson said funeral directors are usually valued community leaders.

“They are professional people first, but they also are the people who volunteer their time and money to help community organizations and causes,” he said. “And they are the people who gather to help families get through a bad time.”