Chap. 348.—An ACT to amend and reenact Sections 1719, as amended, 1719-a,
1720, as amended, 1720-a, and 1721, as amended, of the Code of Virginia, relat-
ing to the State Board of Embalmers and Funeral Directors of Virginia, its
agents and employees, the practice of embalming, funeral directing, and
licensing of applicants and conditions thereof. [H 424]

Approved March 31, 1948

Be it enacted by the General Assembly of Virginia:

1. That section seventeen hundred nineteen as amended, seventeen
hundred nineteen-a, seventeen hundred twenty as amended, seventeen
hundred twenty-a, and seventeen hundred twenty-one as amended of the
Code of Virginia be amended and reenacted as follows:

Section 1719. Meetings of board; election of officers; rules and
regulations; schools——The board shall meet at least twice in each year
and may meet as often as the proper and efficient discharge of its duties
shall require. Three shall constitute a quorum. The board shall have the
power to select out of its own members a president, and from its own
members or otherwise, a secretary-treasurer. They shall serve for one
year and until their successors shall be elected and have qualified. Each
member shall be reimbursed for his traveling expenses and the necessary
expense incident to his attendance upon the business of the board, and
in addition thereto the sum of ten dollars per diem for each day actually
spent by such members upon the business of the board. The secretary
shall receive and be paid such annual salary as may be fixed by the board
not to exceed eighteen hundred dollars per annum, the amount and
method of payment of which shall be fixed by the board and in addition
thereto the secretary shall receive his necessary traveling and other
expenses incurred in the performance of his necessary duties. All such
expenses, per diem, and compensation shall be paid out of the receipts of
the board.

The board may employ an attorney, subject to the written approval
of the Attorney General, and such clerical and other help or assistance
as may be necessary to carry out the provisions of this chapter, and the
terms of such employment shall be determined by the board.

The expenses of the board shall at no time exceed the receipts
thereof.

The board shall, from time to time, make and adopt such rules,
regulations and by-laws for its government and for the carrying out
and enforcement of the provisions of this chapter as may be necessary
and as are consistent with the laws of this State. The Board shall adopt
a common seal. The president of the board (and in his absence the
president pro tempore elected by the members present) is authorized
to administer oaths to witnesses testifying before the board.

The board may conduct, approve or aid in the conducting of schools
for teaching embalming, funeral directing, and scientific branches relating
thereto out of its own funds but shall not thereby reduce the funds of
the board below the sum of three hundred dollars.

The president of the board, or any members designated by the board,
shall have power and authority to issue subpoenas for funeral directors
or embalmers or persons holding themselves out as such, or for any
other person whose testimony, in the judgment of the board, is necessary
for any hearing which it is authorized to hold. Such subpoenas shall
require such person or persons to attend before the board or any member
thereof designated, upon any hearing conducted under authority of this
chapter. The penalty for disobedience to the command of such subpoena
shall be by fine not exceeding twenty-five dollars, to be imposed by any
trial justice, police justice or circuit or corporation court of the county
or city in which such offense is committed.

The secretary-treasurer of the board shall give bond to the Common-
wealth of Virginia with corporate surety in such sum as the board shall
direct. Such bond shall be conditioned for the faithful discharge of the
duties of such officer, and with approval of the board endorsed thereon,
certified by the president, shall be deposited with the State treasurer.

Section 1719-a. Appointment of inspector—authority and duties.—
The board may appoint an agent whose designation shall be: “Inspector
of the Board of Embalmers and Funeral Directors of Virginia”.

Such inspector shall hold office during the pleasure of the board, and
his duties shall be, and he is hereby authorized, to enter the office,
premises, establishment or place of business of any embalmer or funeral
director in the State of Virginia, or any office, premises, establishment
or place of business where embalming or funeral directing is carried on,
for the purpose of inspecting such office, premises, establishments or
place of business, and for the purpose of inspecting the license and regis-
tration of embalmers, funeral directors, and apprentices operating therein.
Such inspector is further authorized to serve and execute any papers or
process issued by the board or any officer or member thereof under
authority of this act, and also to perform any other duty or duties
prescribed or ordered by the board. Such inspector shall receive such
compensation as the board may determine, payable only out of the
receipts of the board.

Section 1720. Embalmers; licenses; qualification of applicants;
examinations.—Every resident of this State hereafter desiring to engage
in the practice of embalming dead human bodies within the Common-
wealth of Virginia, who is at least twenty-one years of age, has a high
school education and has graduated from a school of embalming ap-
proved by the State Board of Embalmers and Funeral Directors, who
has had two years training as an apprentice under an embalmer duly
licensed under the provisions of this chapter and who establishes by
proof satisfactory to the board that he has actually embalmed not less
than twenty-five dead human bodies under the supervision of a licensed
embalmer, shall make written application to the State Board of Embalm-
ers and Funeral Directors for a license on forms furnished by the board,
which application shall be sworn to before a notary public or other officer
authorized to administer oaths and shall accompany the same with a
license fee of twenty-five dollars. Thereafter the applicant shall present
himself before the board at a time and place to be fixed by the board,
and if the board shall find, upon due exmaination, that the applicant is
of good moral character, possessed of the qualifications required by this
section and possessed of the skill and knowledge of the science of
embalming and care and disposition of the dead and has a reasonable
knowledge of sanitation and disinfection of the bodies of deceased per-
sons, of the apartment, clothing and bedding in cases of death from
infectious or contagious diseases, the board shall issue to such applicant a
license to practice the science of embalming and the care and disposition
of the dead and shall register such applicant as a duly licensed embalmer.
Such license shall be signed by a majority of the board and attested by
its seal. All persons receiving a license under the provisions of this
section shall also register the fact at the office of the board of health of
the city or county in which he resides or conducts his business and,
where there is no board of health, with the clerk of the circuit court of
the county or corporation in which he proposes to engage in practice
and shall display such license in a conspicuous place in the office from
which his practice is conducted.

Section 1720-a. Funeral directors; assistant funeral directors;
licenses, et cetera—Every person engaging in the practice of funeral
directing shall obtain a license from the State Board of Embalmers and
Funeral Directors. Upon the payment of the fee prescribed by this chapter
every person now engaged in the practice of funeral directing shall
receive a license from the State board. From and after the taking effect
of this chapter no person shall engage in the practice of funeral directing
unless he shall have been licensed by the State board. No person not

engaged in the practice of funeral directing at the time this chapter takes
effect shall be entitled to a license to engage in the practice of funeral
directing, unless he has served as an assistant to a funeral director for
at least two years prior to being licensed, is of a good moral character, is
at least twenty-one years of age and passes such examination as shows
that he is possessed of a reasonable knowledge of sanitation and disin-
fection of bodies of deceased persons where death is caused by an infec-
tious, contagious, or communicable disease, and has complied with all
the requirements and regulations of the board applying to funeral direc-
tors. Every person desiring a license as a funeral director shall make
written application to the board in which shall be stated the name, age
and place of business of the applicant, the length of time and place
where he has been employed as a funeral director or where he has been
employed as an assistant to a funeral director in which latter case the
applicant shall state the name of such funeral director and shall state
the length of time such applicant served as an assistant to such funeral
director. The application shall also contain such other information as
may be required by the State board. Such application shall be accom-
panied by a license fee of twenty-five dollars. When the applicant has
complied with the provisions of this section, the board shall issue to
the applicant a license to practice funeral directing and shall thereupon
register such applicant as a duly licensed funeral director, which license
shall be signed by a majority of the board and attested by its seal.
Every person receiving a license under the provisions of this section
shall register such license at the office of the board of health of the
county or city in which his business is conducted, and where there is no
board of health, shall register such license with the clerk of the circuit
court of the county or city in which such business is conducted. Such
license shall be displayed in a conspicuous place in the office of the
licensee.

No person shall be employed as an assistant funeral director until he
shall be licensed by the State Board of Embalmers and Funeral Directors.
No person not engaged as an assistant funeral director at the time this
chapter takes effect shall be entitled to a license to engage in the practice
of an assistant funeral director, unless he is of good moral character, is
at least twenty-one years of age, and passes such examination before
the State Board of Embalmers and Funeral Directors as shows that
he is possessed of a reasonable knowledge of sanitation and disinfection
of bodies of deceased persons where death is caused by an infectious,
contagious or communicable disease and has compiied with all the
requirements and regulations of the board applying to assistant funeral
directors. Each original application for a license as an assistant funeral
director shall be accompanied by a fee of five dollars which shall be paid
to the treasurer of the board.

Section 1721. Member of firm or manager of corporation engaged
in funeral directing to be licensed; embalmers or funeral directors
licensed in other states——At least one member of every firm and the
manager of each place of business conducted by any corporation that de-
sires to engage in the practice of funeral directing, shall be a licensed
funeral director, but no assistant, no member of any firm, and no officer
or employee of any corporation shall engage in the care, preparation,
disposal and burial of dead human bodies, or the management of burials,
or the discharge of any of the duties of a funeral director, unless he shall
be a licensed funeral director under the provisions of this chapter; pro-
vided that a person licensed as an assistant funeral director may perform
any of the acts aforesaid, under the direct supervision of a licensed
funeral director; except that no such assistant funeral director may
operate or manage a funeral home or branch thereof. No person shall
hold himself out as an embalmer or discharge any duty or function
connected with the embalming of dead human bodies, unless such
person has been duly licensed as an embalmer by the State board under
the provisions of this chapter; provided, however, that a student em-
balmer may assist a duly licensed embalmer in the embalming of dead
human bodies.

The board may recognize licenses issued to embalmers or funeral
directors by State boards of embalming and State health authorities of
other states ; and upon the presentation of such licenses and the payment
of a fee which shall be equal to the fee charged Virginians for licenses
by the State in which such person is licensed, but not less than twenty-
five dollars, may issue to the lawful holders thereof the embalmer’s or
funeral director’s license herein provided for. Such reciprocal license
shall be renewed annually upon the payment of the renewal fee fixed
by section seventeen hundred and twenty-b upon the same terms and
conditions as provided herein and the rules and regulations of the board
of renewal. No person shall be entitled to a reciprocal license as a
funeral director or embalmer, unless he gives proof that he has, in the
State in which he is legally licensed, complied with requirements sub-
stantially equal to those set out in this chapter relating to funeral directing
and embalming.