Our Faculty

Dr. Vanderlyn R. Pine entered funeral service in 1957, graduated from the American Academy of Funeral Service in 1959, and assumed the management of his family’s funeral home.

In 1970, Dr. Pine was appointed as the Management Consultant for the National Funeral Directors Association, a position he held until 1985. Also in 1970, he became a college professor with special expertise in Sociological Research Methods, Statistical Analysis, and the Sociology of Death. Dr. Pine began publishing articles on funeral home evaluation and financial management in the early 1970s in the American Funeral Director and NFDA’s The Director.

Over the years he has authored, edited, and contributed to a number of books on funeral service, and has given hundreds of featured speeches, lectures, and seminars on funeral home evaluation, management, pricing, mergers and consolidation, and other related subjects for numerous funeral director associations and groups in the United States and Canada.

Dr. Pine is Chairman and President of American Funeral Consultants ("AFC"). He and his dedicated staff of professionals specialize in areas such as: Succession Planning; Funeral Business Buy/Sell Intermediary Services; Funeral Home Appraisals; Minority Stock Assessment; Estate Planning & Analysis; and general consulting services. Dr. Pine has helped hundreds of funeral home owners and their management staff throughout the United States and Canada achiev e their business goals.