Clair Ferris:  

Life We live in Olympia, WA. I am so fortunate to have married an incredible woman, Sharon Gates a 1969 MSHS grad. We have five kids and thirteen grandchildren. While living in Medford, I worked in the family business, Memory Gardens Memorial Park & Funeral Home. Went to SOC (now SOU), Merritt David Business College and San Francisco College of Mortuary Science. From 1976 to 1987 I helped operate the family business. We sold the business to Service Corporation International in 1987. For several years in the mid 1980's, we also owned and operated (with my brother, Paul) the Bronx Pizza Parlor in East Medford. From 1990 through Oct. 2002, I worked for The Loewen Group, an international funeral service company. As a regional manager and a regional vice-president for the company, my work-related travels have taken me throughout the United States and Canada. In October 2002 I left the Loewen Group. I had enough of the corporate mentality where the bottom line was more important than the families we served. With my wife's support we started up our own funeral service company. Our company is called Funeral Alternatives of Washington. We went into direct competition with my former company/employer. We have a web site located at FuneralAlternatives.org The growth and success of the business has exceeded our expectations. After six years we became the leadi...Expand for more