Richard H. Wedekindt, 81, fourth generation funeral director, historian of burial customs

May 23, 1942 – Sept. 9, 2023

Richard H. Wedekindt not only was part of the fourth generation of his family to become funeral directors, but he also was a historian of the changing customs that surround death and burial. 

He lectured to classes at the University at Buffalo and what is now Canisius University. He gave hundreds of talks to civic, community and religious groups about funeral practices. He recalled how in his youth there were still home funerals and horse-drawn hearses.

Speaking of the arrangements for funerals, he noted in 1994 that “the process helps the family. The service is for the survivors.”

A longtime Amherst resident, he died Sept. 9 after a lengthy period of declining health. He was 81.

Mr. Wedekindt’s research included the history of his family’s business, which began in 1887 when his great-grandfather Henry Wedekindt Sr., a cabinet maker who had been building coffins for a local undertaker, decided to open his own “undertaking parlor” at 326 High St. in Buffalo’s Fruit Belt.

Born in Buffalo, Mr. Wedekindt and his twin brother, Raymond, graduated from Amherst Central High School in 1960 and went on together to be dean’s list students at UB and earn associate degrees in applied science in 1962.

The brothers had assisted their father as boys in the Harry A. Wedekindt Funeral Home, which opened its location on Grover Cleveland Highway in Amherst in 1958. After they became licensed, they joined him in the business in 1965.

During his first years as a funeral director, he met Barbara A. Treble at a service that the Wedekindts arranged for her…