Memorial Society of Western Nevada Records

The purpose of the Memorial Society of Western Nevada is to promote, through education and other means, dignity and simplicity in all services in connection with the disposition of human remains, and to prearrange for members and their families, at prearranged rates, the type of disposal of the bodily remains which they desire within the limitations prescribed by law.

Preliminary meetings and a proposal for a memorial society began on the campus of the University of Nevada in May, 1966, at the instigation of the Faculty Welfare Committee. The Memorial Society of Western Nevada, which is a member of the Continental Association of Funeral and Memorial Societies based in Washington, D.C., was incorporated on December 23, 1966 through the diligent efforts of several persons, including Elmer Rusco, Dr. S.D. Firestone, Earl and Esther Nicholson, Dr. Hahn, Dr. Horbing, Jack Forbes, Walter H. Voskuil, and Russell Thayer. They developed the articles of incorporation, arranged for public meetings, and made initial contacts with local morticians.

Trustees of the society, who serve without compensation, met regularly through 1967 and the spring of 1968. Thereafter, owning to the preoccupation of new Board chairmen with personal or professional obligations, or because of illness, meetings were infrequent. However, information bulletins giving the minimum charges of a local mortician, and crematorium and cemetery charges, as well as the procedures for donation of bodily remains, were supplied to members.

The Society, which had a membership of about sixty families in its first years, was nearly inactive during 1971-1972. But during the spring of 1973, the information bulletins were updated, and the services of a second Reno mortician became available to members. An augmented Board of Trustees was elected at an open meeting held in October of 1973. The membership reached about ninety families at this time, the great majority in the Reno-Sparks-Carson City-Lake Tahoe area. Service by the cooperating morticians is directed primarily to this area, but can be provided with extra mileage costs for those further away. The Society has never had arrangements with morticians in southern or eastern Nevada.

Generally, since 1973 the Trustees have met regularly and according to the bylaws. Objectives of the Board continue to be the provision of annual bulletins to the membership and the obtaining of the services of additional morticians. An annual meeting for the membership is held, usually in early June. The announcement for the meeting goes out to the members in the spring with the annual bulletin. The attendance at these meetings the past six years have averaged 40-60 persons, some drawing by publicity in the local newspapers as well as television and radio coverage. Speakers have included the county coroner, attorneys, cooperating morticians, and in 1986 a representative of the Hemlock Society.

History written by Jim McCormick February 1966