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FEBRUARY 2013
FUNERAL HOME & CEMETERY NEWS
S ec t i on A
Craig Witzke Funeral Care
offers compassion
products. Information is available on alternatives to tra-
ditional burial such as the
Eternal Reefs Memorial
.
“Customs and times change, and during my five-year
absence in the business I went to more and more funer-
als where the family had done a private service and then
had a celebration in a restaurant,” Witzke continued. “I
wanted to be able to help people in that capacity by offer-
ing a simple service and making it meaningful.”
Craig’s daughter,
Ashley
, is planning to be the fifth
generation of Witzke’s in funeral service. Although she
won’t graduate from high school until June, she is already
working with her dad. She will begin the mortuary sci-
ence program at CCBC-Catonsville next year.
The plan is for Ashley to eventually take over the business.
But her father is far from retirement, and still gets plenty of
satisfaction from helping others during a trying time.
“I’ve had the opportunity to work with my grandfather, my
father, my sister, and now my daughter, and that is a tremen-
dous experience,” he said. “People come to you at a time when
they need your trust, your help, and your assistance. I try to
do what they expect me to do, and treat them with compas-
sion. People are always very grateful, and that’s rewarding.”
Craig Witzke
Ashley Witzke
al funeral home setting. The new location contains sev-
eral rooms, but none are used for viewings. A large front
room, highlighted by framed prayer cards from the 1963
funeral of President John F. Kennedy, serves as the busi-
ness office. There is a casket selection room as well as a
room with a selection of cremation urns and memorial
CATONSVILLE,MD—
Craig Witzke
, the great-grandson
of
Harry Witzke, Sr
., began working in the family busi-
ness in 1986. A familiar name in Baltimore’s funeral ser-
vice, the first
Witzke Funeral Home
was opened by Har-
ry Witzke, Sr. in 1912.
The family business traveled to several city locations before
establishing its first Baltimore County presence with a 1969
move to Catonsville. In 2006
the family firm was acquired
by one of the industry’s pub-
licly-traded firms. Through
this acquisition Craig’s po-
sition was eliminated and a
non-compete agreement left
him out of the only business
he had ever known.
His absence from the busi-
ness didn’t last long. In De-
cember 2011, the 48-year-
old graduate of the mortuary
science program at
Catons-
ville Community College
be-
came the owner-operator of
the independent
Craig Wit-
zke Funeral Care
.
“Funeral-service is a call-
ing,” Witzke was quoted
as saying. “I didn’t want to
build a new funeral home,
which would have cost about
$5 million. I thought my
great-grandfather had a real-
ly good business plan when
he started, and I wanted to
emulate that.”
Craig’s new firm is head-
quartered in a modest
home. It’s not a tradition-