Whitmer's Porta-Morgue

HISTORY

Whitmer's Porta-Morgue

Tribune Business Weekly

1987 South Bend Tribune Corp. / Vol. 1. No. 22

By Jan Oedekerk

Tribune Business Weekly

Entrepreneurial Spirit Calls on Funeral Director.

     When you graduate from one of the 37 mortuary schools in this country, your career sights are most likely set on becoming a funeral home director and perhaps, an eventual owner. Nowhere in the plans are extensive formulas for developing product design, and nowhere in the textbooks did it mention a need for international sales and marketing expertise. But the entrepreneurial spirit leaves no vocation to rest. Porta-Morgue, Inc. is the name Robert Whitmer, embalmer by trade, chose for his patented invention, a compact, portable refrigerated morgue storage unit. Manufactured in South Bend, for the past three years by Bangor Cooler Co., Whitmer and his wife Rhonda are now in the early stages of marketing their unique product worldwide. Porta-Morgue holds remains temporarily or over an indefinite period of time, reducing and inhibiting bacterial growth, potential germs and viruses associated with communicable diseases, as well as hard control diseases such as AIDS. A funeral director at Welsheimer's Funeral Home in South Bend, Whitmer realized a need in the industry for a smaller, refrigerated unit for preservation and transportation of corpses and human remains. Although some hospital and funeral homes have large units or full morgue, there was nothing for smaller operations that occasionally needed to hold a body for several days, Whitmer Said. "I thought there should be something for funeral home and nursing homes which don't need refrigeration all the time, but in smaller unit, "Whitmer said. In 1983 Whitmer developed a refrigerated pouch an acquired a patent disclosure on the idea, but marketing efforts proved unfruitful.It was not until 1987 that Robert and Rhonda began to develop the concept seriously. Ed Ward of Bangor was the only refrigeration engineer that responded to their request. He helped develop Robert's concept into a more feasible, marketable product. The product's name was not a first choice, but after several trademark turn downs because of name duplication they settled on "Porta-Morgue". It seemed fitting, since the unit was designed to take the place of a hospital morgue, explained Rhonda. In 1988, a 10,000-piece nationwide mailing targeted funeral homes, crematoriums, mortuary college, hospital, medical schools, nursing homes and the United States armed forces overseas markets, and although responses for the new idea were many, actual orders were few. "It was more like a trickle the first year," Whitmer said, "but sales are growing steadily and this is the first year we've gotten a good response from the government. New target markets, such as humane societies, petroleum refining companies, coroners and cruise ship companies have also shown an interest. "The funeral business is changing quite a bit, when I first came here (in 1981), there was no such thing as a cremation," Robert said, "but now, by Indiana State Law, although you do not have to be embalmed, you do have to wait 48 hours before cremation". Thus, the concept of a small-refrigerated unit is ideal for those funeral home and crematoriums without permanent facilities, he said. Although Whitmer has no direct competition, larger refrigerated storage units that have been in the industry considerably longer, and marketing are Porta-Morgue's biggest hurdles. The Whitmer's introduced Porta-Morgue at the national disaster convention last year, and evidently made a good impression. But their largest order, for 40 units, was impossible to fill, since the client needed them immediately in response to a European air disaster. "It's a necessary product", Rhonda admits. The PortaMorgue is custom-made and sells for about $3,200.00. "(Robert) doesn't expect to leave the funeral business, but he's brought his idea to where he wants it, being able to sell to the government," Rhonda said.

* In Memory of Mr. Ed Ward *