By flipping through the class schedule book, you can tell this school isn't an ordinary place.
Embalming chemistry, psychology of death and restorative art don't sound like average classes in school. Then again, the Pittsburgh Institute of Mortuary Science doesn't attract mainstream students. A black hearse in the parking lot, driven by a student to classes that day, seemed, well, normal.
"We're not as creepy as everyone thinks we are," said Emily Conway, of the South Side, as she busily worked in her restorative art class.
A graduate of Indiana University of Pennsylvania, Conway, 29, was applying a clay-like substance to fake skulls, learning to rebuild faces and complexions. "I got my bachelor's in psychology and I wanted to do grief counseling. I want to work with people when they most need it."
The institute is one of only 52 accredited mortuary schools in the country and two in Pennsylvania. Eugene Ogrodnik, president of the school, said graduating classes have around 125 students, a number that has been declining slightly in recent years.
Located off Baum Boulevard in Shadyside, the school has three floors, including classrooms, lab rooms and a small library. Students range in age from 17 to 55 and have anything from high school diplomas to graduate degrees.
Ogrodnik said it takes a special breed of people to become funeral directors.
"This isn't your typical student body," he said. "It does take a special person to do this. Many times the technical end isn't what they're interested in. It's providing helpful assistance at a difficult time. Many students see it almost as a ministry."
The "technical end," of course, means preparing the body for viewing.
Across the parking lot in a smaller building, students practice body preparation in a room with several metal tables and ominous looking instruments.
The school receives unclaimed bodies from the Allegheny County Coroner's Office, from people who donated their bodies to science and from families who can't afford to pay full price to a funeral home. For those families, funeral directors let the school do the embalming and charge the customer less. The school performs between 300 and 350 embalmings a year.
A tour inside revealed a new body delivered from the coroner that morning. The stale, moldy smell, explained Ogrodnik, was the body decomposing. "This body must have been at the morgue for a while. Fresh bodies don't smell like that," he said.
Many of the students get odd looks when they tell people what they want to do for a living.
"I always get jokes," Eric Dolfi said. "Something like 'I bet your customers don't talk back' or 'I bet the parties are dead at your house.'" But Dolfi, 24, wants to do it because his dad owned a funeral home and recently died. Dolfi, who lives in Uniontown, Fayette County, wants to keep the business in the family. He and his fiancee are taking classes together.
Ogrodnik said that 20 years ago 80 percent of his students were related to an owner of a funeral home. Now only 20 percent are. The annual salary for a graduate of the school in the western Pennsylvania area who is not an owner is about $23,000. But, Ogrodnik said, if students leave the area, they can almost double their salaries.
Nationally, there is a big demand for funeral directors, but regionally the market is saturated. Pennsylvania has more funeral homes per capita than any state but New York, Ogrodnik said.
Despite the nature of the funeral homes, it's important to keep a sense of humor, said Steve Dambaugh, 24, who was taking a break from classes in the student lounge. Hanging on the wall above him was a sign: "Coroner Parking Only. All others will be bagged and tagged." There was also pictures of the HBO series "6 Feet Under" and classic hearses. Who can forget the '58 Eureka Landau or the '79 Miller?
Dambaugh, of Zelienople, is interested in the science and technical aspects of the field. "What you see and do, not everyone can handle that," he said. "But, it's the nature of the business."
Half of all funeral directors will change professions within five years of graduating from mortuary school, Ogrodnik said. But, the Pittsburgh Institute has not seen that. "We're very candid with our students about what to expect," he said. "They're prepared when they leave."
Curriculums at the school are tailored to the certification needs of the students. Since there is no uniform nationwide license requirement, each state determines its own certification requirements. In Pennsylvania, the license includes certification in funeral directing and embalming.
"People are always like, 'Ew, why would you want to work with dead people," Conway said. "But we've all had losses, and I want to help. I want to give back. This profession allows me to do that."
