By Martha Jacob – 

During its 2017 International Convention & Expo, held October 29-November 1, in Boston, MA, the National Funeral Directors Association (NFDA) installed Kenneth A. Cahall, CFSP, CCO, as president.
“I am looking forward to serving as president of the National Funeral Directors Association in the upcoming year,” Cahall said in a phone interview. “I’ve served on the Ohio Funeral Directors Association for many years and became president elect last year at the national level.”
He continued, “I look forward to all the aspects of representing the association at this national level. I am excited about the upcoming national strategic planning session in January and plans to improving the national website, making it more consumer friendly. I also look forward to speaking in Washington D.C. as a consumer advocate.”
Cahall is the owner and president of Cahall Funeral Homes Inc., which has locations in Georgetown, Ripley and Mt. Orab, Ohio.
Cahall Funeral Homes have continued a family tradition in funeral service for nearly sixty years.
In 1951 Maurice and Jeanette Cahall established Cahall Funeral Home on Main Street in Georgetown. In 1973 the couple’s oldest son, Kenneth joined the firm and is currently serving as sole owner and president.
In 1971 the funeral home moved to a new location at 204 West State Street, where it is currently located.
In 1990, Cahall purchased another family funeral home with a long tradition in funeral service, the Trapp and Wilson Funeral Home in Ripley.
In 1996 the Ripley location underwent a major addition and renovation. Then in May 2013, Cahall’s purchased the Egbert Funeral Home in Mt. Orab.
Cahall is an active member of the Ohio Funeral Directors Association (OFDA) and has served as the association’s secretary, treasurer, president-elect and president. In addition, he has volunteered his time as a member of several OFDA committees, such as the Master Trust, Benefit Trust, Finance and Audit, Nominating, Member Services,  Membership Committees, and the Allied Memorial Council.
On a national level, Kenneth is Ohio’s former representative to the NFDA Policy Board and has served on the NFDA Board of Directors as an at-large representative, secretary,  treasurer and president-elect. In addition, Cahall has served NFDA as a member of the following NFDA Committees and Work Groups: Member Resources, National-State Relations, Governance, Audit, Budget and Spokesperson Team.
Kenneth is a graduate of the University of Cincinnati and a 1974 graduate of the Cincinnati College of Mortuary Science, where, on November 17, 2017, he was one of four Alumni inducted into the newly established CCMS Hall of Fame.
Cahall is a member of St. Michael the Archangel Catholic Church, the Brown County Chamber of Commerce, the Cincinnati Chapter of the Better Business Bureau, was a member of the Georgetown Exempted Village School District Board of Education for 16 years and is a past president of the Southwest Ohio School Board Association Regional Board of Education.
NFDA is the world’s leading and largest funeral service association, serving 19,700 individual members who represent more than 10,000 funeral homes in the United States and 49 countries around the world. NFDA is the trusted leader, beacon for ethics and the strongest advocate for the profession. NFDA is the association of choice because it offers funeral professionals comprehensive educational resources, tools to manage successful businesses, guidance to become pillars in their communities and the expertise to foster future generations of funeral professionals. NFDA is headquartered in Brookfield, Wis., and has an office in Washington, D.C. For more information, visit www.nfda.org.