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ICFA Past President Irwin Shipper receives the ICFA Hall of Fame Award from his son David, also an association past president.
Irwin Shipper, CCE, Honored
With Hall of Fame Award
Editor's note: Irwin Shipper, ICFA past president and longtime chairman of the ICFA Government & Legal Affairs Committee, was inducted in the ICFA Hall of Fame on March 11 at the association's 2004 Convention & Exposition in Nashville, Tennessee. What follows are the comments made by his son, Past President David Shipper, in presenting the award and Irwin Shipper's comments in accepting it.
by David Shipper, founder and president of The Futura Group in Princeton, New Jersey, and vice president of Rose Hills Memorial Park, Putnam Valley, New York. He can be reached at dshipper@futuragroup.com
For more than 55 years this year's Hall of Fame award recipient has been involved in the cemetery industry and shows no signs of slowing down.
Involved in all aspects of the industry and this association, he has had many outstanding achievements, not the least of which was guiding the association as its president for a long 18 months during the transition from fall to spring annual conventions and, perhaps more important, leading our government and legal affairs effort for so long that most current members cannot even remember who handled it before -- creating the ICFA Government and Legal Affairs Fund and nearly single-handedly raising more than $1 million since its inception by calling, writing, pressing the flesh and following up with relentless persistency. The next chair of Government and Legal Affairs, take note: This chairman has been involved on a daily basis with this association for decades.
At the same time, he also spent 22 years as chairman of the new Jersey Cemetery Board, creating and maintaining an extremely difficult balance between progressive industry needs and some of the most restrictive laws in the country. Protecting both consumers and the industry alike, he was and is enormously respected for his work on that board.
All that aside, I think his greatest contribution is having embodied the most important characteristic of ICFA membership: unstinting sharing, generosity of spirit and unbelievable consistency. Always available to be a guiding hand filled with wisdom, maturity and kindness to help lead us in the right direction.
Most often quietly confident and caring, displaying the occasional steely resolve when necessary, this year's recipient embodies all that an ICFA Hall of Fame recipient must.
Ladies and gentlemen, I am extremely proud to ask you to rise and congratulate this year's Hall of Fame recipient, my father, Irwin Shipper.
by Irwin Shipper, chairman of the ICFA Government and Legal Affairs Committee. He can be reached at ifshipper@aol.com
In 1940 a guy with a little more sales ability than business ability convinced my father that if he bought into this cemetery and adjacent dairy farm, 90 minutes away in another state, it could be sold out in five years and make a million dollars. And in those days a million dollars was really something! Thirty years later, there were still some cows there and the cemetery that was started in 1927 still today has 100 years worth of inventory. Like I said, the guy who sold the dream to my father had more sales ability than business savvy, but things have worked out very well for our family.
I want to thank my father for being sold on the dream and sending my older brother Leon to learn the business. I want to thank my brother for urging me to be his partner when I was 17 years old, 56 years ago.
I also want to thank my nephew Aaron, who was unable to be here today, for being such a terrific partner for so many years.
Even though David can be a bit of a pain, I want to thank him for following me into the business and giving me the time to go to law school for three years and to do some wonderful things for our family both in and out of the business these last 26 years since he joined us.
I want to thank my wife, Florence, without whose patience and belief that we would be successful, this journey would not nearly have been so much fun.
And of course, I want to thank the Hall of Fame Committee and the members of this association for bestowing this great honor upon me.
Our industry is not for short-term players. It requires people with patience, fortitude and dedication and an association of caring and sharing people to back us up. It has been a privilege to have worked so closely with so many of you dedicated members of our industry for so many years.
In my own case, I have devoted a great deal of time and energy to industry-related activities that at first blush may seem unrelated to what is needed to be successful in our field.
For example, I spent 22 years as chairman of the New Jersey Cemetery Board and, of course, many years working with this association in many areas and as its president. And finally spending the last 12 years chairing our Government and Legal Affairs Committee. It has been gratifying working closely with Bob Fells on a daily basis helping the association deal effectively with a constant barrage of legal and legislative issues that have and will continue to confront us all. And as most of you know from firsthand experience, I have also spent a little bit of time raising a few dollars for the committee's fund.
Speaking of that and since I have the floor, I can't let this opportunity go by without asking all of you here to send in this year's contribution to the Government and Legal Affairs Fund. Remember, as someone once observed, "Ask not what ICFA has done for you but what have you done for ICFA lately!" So, give Bob a check today!
I am not only proud to be in the company of the other 25 recipients of this honor but proud to be part of an association that truly represents the best interests of consumers everywhere.
Ladies and gentlemen, I am truly honored by this award today.
Thank you.
• Read Irwin Shipper's annual interviews summing up the effect of regulation, legislation and litigation on the funeral and cemetery profession in 2003, 2002 and 2001
• Read David Shipper's report on his visits to Shanghai funeral homes and cemeteries
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Copyright ICFA 2004
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