Ryan McLane
Elected to the position of President of the FSABC is Ryan McLane, General Manager of SCI’s Greater Victoria’s First Memorial Funeral Services. Ryan represents another addition of a generation of new funeral professionals who are committing themselves to the principal of “excellence in funeral service” and demonstrating leadership in the work of the FSABC.
Born in Saskatoon Saskatchewan, Ryan was raised on the family farm at Liberty. Upon completion of his secondary education in Imperial, Ryan entered the University of Regina graduating with a Bachelor of Arts degree with a major in Psychology in 1995.
It was during his university days that Ryan became a part time employee of Helmsing Funeral Chapels in Regina. Upon graduation, wondering how he might best utilize his new found education to “serving humanity” he took a full time position with Helmsing Funeral Chapel and under the tutelage of Hewitt Helmsing and his staff, graduated with distinction from the Saskatchewan Funeral Service Association Education Program in 1997 as a fully licensed Embalmer and Funeral Director.
In 1997, he became Manager of First Memorial in Victoria. In 2000, he became the Manager of First Memorial in Vancouver and later was appointed Manager at Ocean View Funeral Home in Burnaby before returning to Victoria to his current position with First Memorial.
Colleagues of Ryan witnessed early in his career that he had a genuine and innate ability to connect with families, their interests and their backgrounds and witnessed the trust and respect that grieving families placed in him.
Ryan has seen first hand the changing face of funeral service with families seeking celebration of life ceremonies, a focus on catering rather than viewing, the use of the Reception Room rather than the chapel while still embracing the traditional aspects of funeral service as it relates to the funeral ritual within certain ethnic and religious communities.
He says that funeral service needs to embrace the wave of change and that funeral professionals must continue to be creative when working with families to provide whatever type of ceremony or remembrance that a family is requesting.
He sees his new role as President-Elect as being an integral part of a new team of leadership working to raise the image of funeral service in British Columbia and creating value in the FSABC by continuing a process of creating a cohesive working profession through a strong united and comprehensive progressive Association. The recruitment, training and retention of a strong pool of funeral professionals is a goal shared with his Board Colleagues.
Ryan has been active in the community, working with various Hospice, Community and Church Groups and Associations as well as serving with the Vancouver Police Victim Services Unit. Ryan emulates the words of Mahatma Gandhi, “Be the change that you want to see in the world.”
