ReZoom

It almost goes without saying that the baby boom generation has radically altered many of the customs of American living. From music to marriage to technology, the boomers will no doubt be remembered for creating upheaval within each phase of life.

Funeral planning will be no different. That's why the theme for this year's annual National Funeral Directors Association Convention & Expo – which is expected to draw more than 5,000 funeral directors, mortuary science students, makeup professionals and other exhibitors – is "Welcome to Fabulous New Ideas."

"We baby boomers, we like to have it our way," said 47-year-old Kurt Soffe, co-owner of Jenkins-Soffe Funeral Homes and Cremation Center, based in Utah's Salt Lake Valley. "We like things to be more personal, and that's just what a lot of these new services are about. Many of the NFDA's workshops and panel discussions will be geared toward helping some of the more traditionally based funeral directors deal with all the new ideas out there. It's a big challenge for us."

Dick and Sue Coffin, authors of the Ahead of Your Time: A Complete Guide for End-of-Life Planning, said boomers' new lease on death stems from lessons learned by previous generations.

"Let's just say we boomers are be a little more responsible when it comes to death," Dick Coffin said. "When you've had to deal with your own parents growing old and dying – and all the challenges that implies – you start to feel like you need a plan. And what we've found is, once people start making arrangements, they say, ‘Hey, I'm on a roll, maybe I should think about memorials and all this other stuff.'"

And there's a lot to think about. Below are some of the boomers' fabulous new ideas:

College Campus Plots

While you may have skipped your college class's 25th reunion, there's still one last chance to be true to your school. Campus cemeteries are the latest trend in end-of-life planning (or the latest trend in college fundraising, depending on your level of cynicism).

While many colleges keep cemeteries somewhere on their campus grounds, the marketing of plots in these cemeteries to alumni is a more recent phenomenon. Notre Dame sells burial plots in its Cedar Grove cemetery for about $11,000 while Duke University sells plots in its Rigsbee graveyard (located just a short walk from Wallace Wade Stadium) for just over $20,000. Other schools that have recently developed burial marketing plans for alumni include The Citadel and The University of Virginia.

Green Funerals

Environmentally friendly or "green" burials are less a new idea than a return to old ideas, according to Mark Harris, author of Grave Matters: A Journey Through the Modern Funeral Industry to a Natural Way of Burial.

"What we're calling green is not something anyone could consider weird or strange or even unfamiliar," Harris said. "As a matter of fact, it was the way of American death until about 1870 or 1880."

According to Harris, methods like cremation, burial at sea and backyard burial are considered green alternatives to the modern, funeral home methods involving toxic embalming fluids and metal coffins.

"The modern funeral is a fairly expensive and intensive operation that leaves a large wake of pollution after it's conducted," Harris said, citing reports that claim enough metal is diverted into coffin and vault production each year to rebuild the Golden Gate Bridge.

"Certainly the boomers are driving this new trend," Harris added. "Boomers are the ones who created Earth Day, and are largely responsible for getting organic foods into chain grocery stores. We wrote our own wedding vows; I think we're going to bring that same do-it-yourself consciousness to end-of-life issues."

For Part Two of "ReZooming the Afterlife," click here.

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