Czaplewski serves area as 2nd generation funeral director

Ben Czaplewski grew up in Hayfield where his family lived on the second floor of the funeral home until he was five years old. He said when the funeral home visitation area on first floor was not being used for funeral activity, that turned into his play area.
Even at that young age, Ben still has some memories about living above the funeral home.
Ben graduated from Hayfield High School in 2015 and was involved with some other sports but really enjoyed playing first base on the baseball team. He did participate in games against KM and Lourdes, where his dad attended, through the years.
Some of the summer jobs he performed growing up were helping at the funeral home, washing the cars that he continues to do and working with his dad during some of the funeral visitations.
Ben said he “enjoyed picking rocks” at some of his friends farms since he likes to be outdoors. All who grew up on farms can relate to the exciting, necessary task of rock picking in the spring to keep them out of the combine and other machinery.
Ben then enrolled at Minnesota State University-Mankato to get his general courses completed and was in pre-mortuary science for two years. He was the only male is his program of seven enrolled in the program at Mankato. He was then accepted to the University of Minnesota School of Mortuary Science and was in their two-year program.
He lived above a funeral home, about 20 minutes from the campus, and the best thing, he said, was he did not have to pay rent with those arrangements. He was considered a “night attendant” so he would answer phone calls, wash company cars and help with other duties at the funeral home.
Ben said about half of his class members also had similar living arrangements while attending school. They had classes on funeral history, different cultures and religious ritual practices, embalming, restoration and anatomy. During his time at the University of Minnesota, he learned about the details of funeral services from many different areas. He graduated in 2019 with a Bachelor of Science in Science and Mortuary Science.
Many of us probably think the majority of funeral directors are men, but Ben said his class ratio was 50/50 men and women, while his dad’s graduating mortuary class in 1988 was about 80% male. The school told them they needed to continue to study to prepare for the board tests to be able to be certified once they finished school. Ben had to pass a state board test and then two national board tests which, he said, were tough but he made it.
Ben said he knows he will work or be on call every other weekend and can be called any time night or day. He said that 60% of new morticians will move on to another line of work within five years after completing school due to the uncertain hours and job stress.
One long time mortician told him it is a line of work that you are constantly “married to the phone.” Another funeral director, who operated a funeral home by himself, said whenever they would attend an event or family gathering they would always drive two cars in case he had to leave because they might get a call if a death occurred and needed his services. In funeral service, you can be needed at any time, he said.
Ben said their role as funeral directors is to take care of all the details and arrange any services needed to make it easier for the family during a great time of stress and grief. He encourages people to have a conversation with their families of what wishes they want even if it can be a difficult topic.
They have held planning classes and will do more of them in the future when the pandemic ends. (My personal experience with their class is, they are well worth attending and gives it you direction for something that all of us will face in the future.)
Funerals are about the deceased but are really for the living. People can come to their funeral homes to do pre-planning with their staff and provide information about their family wishes to make it easier when the time arises. They can also make financial arrangements for the funeral so that is taken care of in advance and even if people move to another community the policy can be transferred to a different funeral home that will be making the arrangements.
Being a second generation funeral director, Ben said one of his reasons for going into this line of work was that his father had established an excellent reputation.
When Ben was in high school and helping his father at a burial service at the Wasioja cemetery, he said a woman told his father, “we never want to have the need for your services, but when we do we know we are in good hands.”
COVID-19 has changed a lot of arrangements of funerals with families unable to have visitations where you can hug or shake hands, big church gatherings and luncheons. It has meant having private services and unable to have many people in attendance which has been difficult. They have been making arrangements showing the services via the internet when possible so loved ones can also take part virtually.
Ben said burial with a casket and cremation services are about a 50/50 ratio in the Kasson, Dodge Center and Hayfield areas while cremations make up about 2/3 in Rochester. This trend for cremation will likely continue to increase in that direction in the future.
Ben’s father Paul, grew up in Rochester, and started in the funeral occupation after finishing the Worsham College of Mortuary Science located in Chicago in 1988 and later worked at Ranfranz and Vine in Rochester. In 2001, Paul became part owner of this long established funeral home in Rochester.
In 1995 he purchased funeral homes in other communities and they are now located in Hayfield, Dodge Center and the newest one built in Kasson in 2018. They have four other funeral directors on staff plus other full and part time assistants on their team to help with funerals.
Ben will work at all the funeral homes depending on the needs that day.
Ben said he really enjoys watching sports events on TV and when possible in person for the Wild and the Twins. He likes to work out at the gym but that has been hampered with the virus situation now. He loves being outdoors and even went hunting with his uncle for the first time this year.
He does enjoy getting together with friends when he has time off as he really feels the need to do so whenever possible to cope with his busy schedule. Ben’s sister is an RN and her husband is also a funeral director in the northern Minnesota community where they live so she also helps with funerals at times.
Ben said when he talks to people on the phone he will tell them, “I will spell my last name for you to make sure you have it correctly.” He said the Czaplewski name origin is Polish, but he does not know a lot of details of his ancestry yet. During his college days when other students would ask him what he was majoring in, when he told them some would give him strange look and others would say that is a needed profession.
When young kids are asked “what do you want to be when you grow up,” somehow being a mortician is just not one of their answers!
Ben joined the KM Lions last year and the members told him that he helped raise the average height and lower the average age of the club membership! He is co-chairing the Lions “Soles for Souls” project collecting gently used shoes donated by members from the community so that people living in third world countries will have shoes to wear to help prevent diseases from germs entering cuts in their feet.
He said when he was in college he was part of a fraternity that also did some volunteering so he wants to make a difference. This past summer Ben bought a house in Kasson and is slowly getting things organized in his new home. 
He is ready to be part of this community and feels he will continue to serve families even better when they become more comfortable knowing who he is and seeing his familiar face.
 
 
Photo: Hayfield native Ben Czaplewski is back in Dodge County as a second generation funeral director.