BOARD MEMBERS

Anderson & Sons Mortuary

49 East 100 North

American Fork, UT  84003

I am a fifth generation funeral director pleased to follow in the footsteps of my grandfather, father, and recently my brother, in serving on the UFDA leadership team.

A little about me, I grew up in American Fork and graduated from American Fork High School. At the age of 12, I began working odd jobs for the mortuary. That later led to getting a job with the American Fork City Cemetery, where I worked for four years while attending high school. This is where I learned and gained great appreciation for all of the hard work that goes into providing exceptional service to families in their time of need.

I later went on to serve a mission for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in the Warsaw Poland Mission. Upon completing my mission, I received my bachelor’s degree in Psychology from the University of Utah and went on to get an MBA/HCM from the University of Phoenix. I worked in healthcare for 17 years, where I managed the non-medical personnel for hospitals.

I returned home to help my family with the business in 2015 and received my Mortuary Science degree from Commonwealth Institute of Funeral Services. I have been working in the profession for a combined 12 years -- 4 years as a licensed funeral director.

I am married to Megan and have four children, Tessa, Ezra, Nash, and Zola. I live in Lehi and enjoy all of the outdoor activities Utah has to offer; however, I am particularly fond of playing volleyball.

Larkin Mortuary

260 East South Temple

Salt Lake City, UT  84111

Travis Greenwood was born and raised in Lehi, UT. He obtained his Mortuary of Science degree from Mt. Hood College in Oregon and became a licensed funeral director in 1995.

Travis is in his twentieth year of being the General Manager for Larkin Mortuary. His dedication in providing genuine care and his years of experience make him a valuable resource to the families he serves. His commitment to treat everyone with dignity and professionalism is respected and emulated by his coworkers.

Travis and his wife, Jackie currently reside in Lehi, UT. He enjoys outdoor activities and spending time with his family. He has served on the Funeral Directors Licensing Board for the past four years. He is involved with and volunteering at many community events.

He is looking forward to serving with the Utah Funeral Directors Association.

Memorial Mortuaries & Cemeteries

3115 E. 7800 S.

Cottonwood Heights, UT  84121

Brian R. Bartlett is the manager of Memorial Mountain View Mortuary and Memorial Lake Hills Mortuary. He has worked with Memorial for 17 years.

He grew up in the Sandy/Draper area and attended Alta High school, graduating in 1995 and attending an LDS mission to San Bernardino, California. While on his mission in California, Brian met a Funeral Director who gave him and his companion a tour of a mortuary, Brian was fascinated and decided that this was the career path he wanted to follow.

When Brian arrived home, he attended Salt Lake Community College and received an Associate’s degree. Following that, he attended Arapahoe Community College. He received his Associate of Applied Science in Mortuary Science degree in 2005. While in Colorado, he met his beautiful Wife Julia, and are the proud parents of four wonderful children (two boys and two girls). Brian currently resides in Eagle Mountain and loves playing golf, watching sports, especially University of Utah football and the Utah Jazz, spending time with his family and being a funeral director.

Larkin Mortuary

260 East South Temple

Salt Lake City, UT 84111

Tyler Morrison, CCO, was born in Nampa, ID in 1990 and was raised in Moses Lake, WA. After serving an LDS mission in Riverside, CA, Tyler decided to follow in his father’s footsteps by beginning his studies in funeral science in 2013. He received his mortuary science degree from the Commonwealth Institute of Funeral Service and became a licensed Funeral Director in 2016. He has always been drawn to the technical aspect of funeral service. Tyler’s passion for serving families has come from embalming, cosmetics, and restorative art. His current position is with Larkin Mortuary as the Care Center Manager.

Tyler and his wife Melissa have three adorable children and are currently residing in Woods Cross, UT. Besides being a dedicated and loving father, Tyler is also a serial hobbyist and enjoys a variety of sports and recreational activities. Among the most consistent are hockey, golf, photography, bargain shopping, and running a small custom laser engraving shop in his spare time.

Redwood Memorial Mortuary

6500 S. Redwood Rd.

West Jordan, UT  84123

From the time Jeremy was five years old, he had a passion to become a funeral director. He was first introduced to funeral service when he attended the funeral of his great grandmother. From that moment on, Jeremy knew that his calling in life was to be of service to others as a dedicated funeral professional.

In 2002, Jeremy graduated from the San Francisco College of Mortuary Science in San Francisco, California. After graduation he immediately began his internship with Memorial Mortuaries. 

Throughout his tenure; Jeremy has accepted numerous responsibilities including: crematory operator, crematory manager, funeral services manager, location manager and Vice President and General Manager for Memorial Redwood Mortuary. His duties have included the development of customer service practices and best practices for mortuary operations.

In an effort to serve families by exceeding their expectations and having the heart of a teacher, Jeremy chose to earn his certification as a Certified Funeral Service Practitioner, CFSP, in an effort to renew his commitment to funeral service.

Despite his fear of public speaking, Jeremy decided to tackle his fears head on and has become a successful presenter for Memorial Mortuaries Death Café, a community outreach and marketing event designed to help people learn about death in an educational and enlightening forum.

Jeremy has learned to help families understand the importance of making the best decisions. His efforts have greatly helped families better understand their options, create more meaningful services and ceremonies that bring about a healthier grieving process for everyone.

Throughout his career, Jeremy has been touched by the many examples of outstanding funeral directors. He clearly has a passion and desire for the work at hand. He has chosen to run as District I Representative in order to serve and give back to the amazing funeral directors of the great state of Utah.

In his spare time, Jeremy loves spending quality time with his wife Rachael and four beautiful children: Gabriel, Taygen, Pacey and Emerson. Jeremy enjoys being outdoors, fly fishing, doing yardwork, tinkering in the garage and working on various projects around the house.

Jenkins-Soffe Mortuary

1007 W. South Jordan Parkway

South Jordan, UT. 84095

Byron currently works as a Funeral Director for Jenkin-Soffe and is grateful to have

worked with them for fourteen years.

Byron’s journey in funeral service began in 2003 when he entered the industry at

Wasatch Lawn/Evans and Early. However, his interest in this field was sparked earlier

during his church mission in Argentina, where he provided support to multiple families

during viewings and afterward. This experience ignited his passion for helping others navigate difficult times and ultimately led him to pursue a career in funeral service.

Byron was born in Utah and raised in Sandy, Utah. He attended Jordan High School

before furthering his education at the Commonwealth Institute of Funeral Service in

Houston, Texas. He graduated from the institute in 2006 and subsequently gained

valuable experience working in Beaumont, Texas, and Safford, Arizona, working for

funeral homes before returning to Salt Lake City in 2010. Byron has received his

certified crematory operator certificate.

Throughout his career, Byron has been deeply involved in his community, actively

participating in organizations such as Rotary, his church, and scouting. His commitment

to serving others extends beyond his professional endeavors and is a core aspect of his identity.

Byron is also dedicated to his family life, having been married to his wife, Jenn, for 20

years. Together, they are raising two children who keep them both busy and fulfilled.

Byron loves spending time with family, friends, in the outdoors and being active in

sports.

Byron's unwavering dedication to his family, community, and his profession exemplifies

his compassionate and service-oriented nature.

Walker Mortuary

187 S. Main St.

Spanish Fork, UT  84660

Frank Lillywhite grew up in Laketown, Utah, a small community near Bear Lake. Living in a remote and beautiful part of Utah gave him a great love of the outdoors. He is the seventh of 10 children and enjoys going back to Bear Lake with his family to visit his dad who still resides there. Frank graduated from Rich High School in 1998 and served a mission for the Church of Jesus Christ to Tampa, Florida shortly thereafter. After his return from Florida he began studying accounting at UVSC in Orem where he met his wife Amy Walker. Amy is the oldest daughter of Allyn and Marsha Walker and she has warm memories of growing up in the Payson and Spanish Fork mortuaries. Amy provided Frank’s introduction into the funeral home, but it wasn’t until four years after their marriage that Frank decided to officially pursue a career in the family business. This decision required that he and his young family move out of state to study at a college that offered a mortuary science program. They moved to Santa Ana, California where he worked at Brown Colonial Mortuary while attending school in Cypress. Frank graduated with a degree in Mortuary Science in 2007, receiving the Elizabeth Green Award for Excellence in Restorative arts.  He then returned to work for Walker Funeral Home in 2008. Since that time Frank has served on various community and industry boards including the Spanish Fork/Salem Area Chamber of Commerce and previously with the Utah Funeral Directors association. Frank and Amy have five children. Family and outdoor activities such as snowmobiling and camping occupy the better part of his free time.

Even though he never would have imagined that working in a funeral home would be part of his life, Frank truly feels that it is exactly what he should be doing. Growing up in a large family, he experienced the loss of two of his brothers who died at three and 21 years of age. Frank could clearly see the impact this had on his family, and he tries to remember this as he meets with families who have experienced a death. Frank feels the Utah Funeral Directors Association plays a key role in educating funeral professionals and raising the standard of care given to families.

Russon Mortuary

295 N. Main

Bountiful, UT  84010

Tyler was born and raised in Bountiful Utah. He attended Bountiful High School where he graduated in 1995. After High School, he served a mission for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Lansing Michigan. After his mission, he met and married Anne Vandegrift. They have 4 children and live in Centerville, Utah. Tyler has worked at Russon Mortuary and Crematory Mortuary since 1997 and has been licensed since 2004.

Nickle Mortuary

190 S. Center St.

Delta, UT  84624

Jackie Kay Nickle started out doing home health care and decided that she wanted to do more by becoming a funeral director and helping families in their time of grief. Jackie is a 2009 graduate of Arapahoe Community College and began a career at Nickle Mortuary.

Throughout the years, Jackie has enjoyed working with various families. She has built good, long-standing relationships with them as well.

Jackie is very committed to the funeral service industry and will continue to strive to do her best in all aspects of it.

Jackie loves to draw in her spare time, even going as far as illustrating a book. She loves giving gifts to people and just having fun. Jackie is looking forward to serving on the board of the Utah Funeral Directors Association and is grateful for the opportunity.

Myers Mortuary

845 Washington Blvd.

Ogden, Utah 84404

Tracy Franklin, CFSP, CCO, was born in Germany and spent his growing up years as a military dependant in Germany, South Carolina, Missouri, and Florida. He is an Eagle Scout and graduated from Summerville High School in Summerville, South Carolina.

He served a mission for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in the Washington Tacoma Mission. Tracy became a transplant to Utah in January of 1994 and began working a job filling vending machines. Later in October, he found his passion in funeral service as he started working for Leavitts Mortuary in Ogden, Utah. After 4 great years with Leavitts, he moved his family to Denver Colorado and worked for Feldman Mortuary where he grew to love the Jewish community while attending the Mortuary Science Program at Arapahoe Community College. The Franklins then moved to Tooele, Utah and began working for Tate Mortuary until March of 2002 when he accepted a position in Ogden with Myers Mortuary to be there Crematory Manager. He has been with Myers Mortuary and Cremation Services for the past 22 years, serving the last 7 years as General Manager for the 5 funeral home location, Myers Evergreen Memorial Park, Legacy Preplanning Group and Myers Pets at Peace Crematory.

Tracy recieved his certification as a Certified Funeral Service Practitioner from the Academy of Professional Funeral Service Practice in 2007. He recieved his Certified Crematory Operator designation in 2005. He serves on the board of directors for "A Center for Grieving Children", in Ogden, Utah. Tracy has been instrumental in putting together the requirements for Myers Mortuary to receive the Pursuit of Excellence Award from the National Funeral Directors Association for the past 17 years. He serves in the bishopric of his ward.

Tracy loves to spend time with his wife, Patty; their 7 children and their spouses and his 3 grandchildren. He loves to cook in the kitchen, never from a recipe. He gets inspiration from the Food Network channel. He loves to smoke meat, and watch movies. Tracy can be seen riding his Harley Davidson to work on nice weather days or cruising thru Davis, Weber, Box Elder and Cache Counties enjoying the relaxation and feeling the wind in his hair.

Lindquist Mortuary

3408 Washington Blvd.

Ogden, UT  84404

Laurie May Abraham, CFSP, CCO, is a native to the Brigham City area. Laurie graduated from Box Elder High School and Dixie State College. She received her Mortuary Science degree from Cypress College in Southern California. She became a licensed funeral director in the State of Utah in 2007, and began working with Myers Mortuaries that same year. Laurie is a member of the Brigham City Rotary Club where she has been awarded the Paul Harris Fellow Award from them. Laurie is honored to be able to lend a helping hand to families going through one of the hardest times of their lives.

UFDA MAILING ADDRESS

Mailing:  P.O. Box 95576

South Jordan, UT 84095-0576

Office:  9075 S 1300 E, Ste 104

Sandy, UT 84094

Melanie was born in Midland, Michigan and moved to Bountiful, Utah when she was eight. She attended Brigham Young University and studied nursing. A couple of years later she was set up on a blind date with Brian Braathen, an accountant, who lived in Washington. They married and she moved to the Seattle area for the next 29 years.  A couple of years after they married, Brian changed professions and became a funeral director. He is currently the manager at Valley View Memorial Park in West Valley.

Previous to becoming the UFDA office manager, Melanie  spent ten years working at a large combo firm, Evergreen-Washelli Funeral Home and Cemetery located in Seattle. She is called mom by three incredible kids, a daughter who resides in Gilbert, AZ and two sons who live in the Salt Lake Valley. She is the grandma to four grandsons and one granddaughter.

Melanie is thrilled to be back in Salt Lake and excited to bring her organizational skills and death care knowledge to the Utah Funeral Directors Association.