Life member honour for 21 years of compassion

Bunbury Cemetery Board manager Pieter Den Boer has been rewarded for more than two decades of committed service with life membership to the Australian Cemeteries and Crematoria Association.

Mr Den Boer was a founding member of the WA State Association in 1993 and has spent nearly 10 years on the ACCA board, including a stint as president from 2005-07.

After starting his working life with the Commonwealth Bank, a chance meeting in 1992 led to a change of career paths for Mr Den Boer.

“I was sitting there at a birthday party for one of my kids speaking to a mate about how I wasn’t enjoying my work and funeral director Errol Barrett leaned across and told me to keep my eye on the jobs section of the newspaper,” Mr Den Boer said.

“In 1992 the whole cemetery and crematorium was taken off the council and put in the hands of a local board and I’ve been the manager since then.”

After spending a decade handling deceased deposits at the bank it was an easy transition for Mr Den Boer.

“For me personally it is not hard to deal with grieving people,” he said.

“We provide a service that is unique in society. Funeral directors and doctors and nurses and hospitals, they all have their little roles and at the end of it all, that’s where we take over.”