Kenneth Lassman

More than 51 years ago, Ken decided to become a funeral director instead of going to dental school, a decision he’s never regretted. A native of Hartford, CT and a graduate of the University of Connecticut, Ken spent the early part of his career in Boston, before moving to Florida in 2005. He’s been with Guttermans since 2011. Ken says that his career has allowed him to meet some of the nicest people in the world, and to bring them comfort and aide in their most difficult times. Like his colleagues at Guttermans, Ken has a deep love for and commitment to helping people.

Ken views his job as a licensed Jewish funeral director as a sacred obligation to the Jewish community he serves. He’s worked diligently throughout his career to earn the trust and respect of the Jewish community. Over the years Ken has visited many synagogues speaking to the children about Jewish funeral and burial traditions. In Boston, he developed a program where youngsters could visit the funeral home with their parents to openly talk about death and dying, a project that he believes took much of the mystery and fear out this difficult subject.

Always supportive of educational community endeavors for children related to Jewish traditions, Ken was instrumental in establishing a Genizah program in Boston and Florida whereby Jewish relics and old unusable Hebrew books were placed in a casket by the Hebrew school children, a funeral service was held followed by the burial of the casket. He was also instrumental in obtaining 20,000 yellow stars (of the 80,000) from the Hillel Holocaust Program which represented the Jewish children that died in the concentration camps and held a community wide event where hundreds of people came to the cemetery to place the stars in a casket that he donated and have a burial ceremony.

When he is not helping families at Gutterman’s you will probably find him before sunrise out in the wetlands and marshes of the Everglades with his camera. An avid amateur wildlife photographer who’s won national awards, Ken and his camera have been across the United States and Central America over the last 10 years. To see his award winning photos, visit kenlassmanphotography.com.

Ken feels grateful to have a career that he loves and extremely fortunate that his hobby of wildlife photography allows him to share the beauty of mother nature and enrich his life as well as others.