Category Archives: Mortuary and Cemetery Board

Students in Oregon’s only funeral prep program prepare to guide families through death, grief

Brieana Shelton had never done her grandmother’s makeup in life. But as she bent over the hospice bed in the family dining room where her grandmother had died hours before, Shelton tried to paint Geri Shelton’s face the way she’d seen it a thousand times. Request full-text (for State Agency patrons only) Source: Students in […]
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Oregon’s human composting law takes effect but services are slow to appear

Funeral businesses can now legally turn humans into soil in Oregon, but no one’s rushing to offer the service here. The Oregon Legislature authorized human composting as an alternative to burial or cremation for disposing of remains last year, and the law took effect this month. Request full-text (for State Agency patrons only) Source: Oregon’s […]
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Oregon’s ‘Terrible Tilly’ lighthouse on private island for sale at $6.5 million

Real estate investors paid $50,000 in 1980 to buy the deteriorating Tillamook Rock Lighthouse, Oregon’s only offshore light station. The owners converted the forlorn structure, which has been brutalized for a century and a half by crashing waves, into the Eternity At Sea columbarium. About 30 funeral urns were interred there before the columbarium’s license […]
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Unclaimed, unknown remains live in funeral homes indefinitely

Stashed in locked cabinets at mortuaries around Central Oregon are the cremated remains of people lost to those who knew them in life. Some of them were famous. Others lived a regular life. The Oregon Indigent Disposition Program was created in 1993 and is funded by the Legislature. Typically, the funding for unclaimed remains falls on the […]
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Judge rules Gordon cannot own Eternal Hills, must sell cemetery

The former Eternal Hills Cemetery owner cannot buy back property that fell into bankruptcy and disrepair under his care, a federal judge ruled Thursday. Robert Gordon, the cemetery’s former owner — and his family trust — cannot own the property because Gordon lacks the ability to obtain the state license necessary to run a cemetery, […]
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Oregon Historic Cemeteries Commission seeks new members – KTVZ

The Oregon Commission on Historic Cemeteries is seeking one new member each for positions in coastal and Central Oregon. The Commission is seeking members with knowledge related to, or interest in, cemeteries, historic preservation, genealogy, cultural and burial practices of ethnic groups found in Oregon, landscape and native plants, and history. Source: Oregon Historic Cemeteries […]
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Judge says he will settle Eternal Hills case with ‘prompt’ decision

The future of the Eternal Hills cemetery could soon be settled after Oregon bankruptcy court Judge Thomas Renn heard arguments Wednesday regarding the legality of selling the cemetery to a trust controlled by ousted former owner Robert Gordon. Lawyers representing the Oregon Mortuary and Cemetery Board, the court-appointed trustee, and Gordon and his family trust […]
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State makes final argument against former Eternal Hills owner

The Oregon Mortuary and Cemetery Board responded to legal arguments over the ownership of the Eternal Hills cemetery, refuting former owner Robert Gordon’s claims that he can buy back the cemetery without the intention to operate it. Bankruptcy Judge Thomas Renn will review arguments submitted by the board, by Gordon and by the court-appointed trustee […]
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Former Eternal Hills owner makes case for buying the property

The disgraced former owner of the Eternal Hills cemetery argued in court filings Monday that he should be able to buy back the property that was forced into involuntary bankruptcy proceedings in 2017. Robert Gordon is barred from operating a cemetery in Oregon after he forfeited his mortuary license, and the cemetery, in a 2019 […]
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Editorial: State falls behind in protecting consumers

The term “death care” was a new one for us. It covers funerals, cremation or burial, and memorials. The state regulates it as does the federal government. And Oregon isn’t doing all that great. The state’s Mortuary and Cemetery Board didn’t do any inspections for more than a year, through January 2020. It was because […]
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