![\"\"](\"https:\/\/goodnewsmags.com\/fayetteville\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2026\/11\/1200x800-3-1.jpg\")
<\/figure>\n\n\n\nBy the time he was 5, Brad was already pitching in. He carried cemetery and tent equipment to gravesites, even though he was still too small to help put up the tents. He also loved riding along with his parents on ambulance calls. Each year brought a little more responsibility, and what started as a boy helping his family slowly grew into a life\u2019s work.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Along the way, he learned something that still guides him today. Every family is different, and no two families face loss the same way. His parents showed him how to listen closely, understand what each family wanted, and offer steady guidance when emotions ran high.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
After graduating from Central High School in 1968, Brad studied at Martin Methodist College and then at John A. Gupton College of Mortuary Science in Nashville. School gave him the formal training, but the heart of the work was something he had already absorbed at home. Brad describes being a funeral director and embalmer as truly a calling. It is one he first saw in his parents, and one he has answered every day for more than half a century.<\/p>\n\n\n\n