12/11/2023

David Schoedinger Receives Lifetime Achievement Award

OFDA Past President Honored with J. Richard Emens Lifetime Achievement Award

David Schoedinger, OFDA Past President and chairman of the board, Schoedinger Funeral & Cremation Service, was honored Wednesday, November 15 at the Conway Center for Family Business’ 25th Annual Family Business Awards program with the J. Richard Emens Lifetime Achievement Award.  

A fifth-generation leader, David is a pillar in the community, serving as both a business and civic leader. He followed in his predecessors’ footsteps by growing the business during his tenure: he built and bought funeral homes and grew location by volumes through thoughtful advertising, pioneering funeral preplanning, and creating other non-funeral related services like aftercare resources for families, and pet cremation. He did all of this while maintaining a family business environment with an open-door policy that extended to non-family members. 

His most notable contribution to the community is his work with the dying and the bereaved. In 1979, he became one of the six founders of the Hospice Association of Columbus. He and the other founders battled the stigma surrounding dying in order to help those facing their final days. With little funding, David and the other board members used their personal assets to pay the salaries of the hospice workers. Since 1979, the hospice presence in Columbus has grown from a small organization to over 40 current hospice programs and hospice care now precedes almost 50% of all deaths.

Executive Director of the Conway Center For Family Business, Jill Hofmans, said, "Mr. Schoedinger has been a part of the Conway Center from the beginning and an inimitable leader of his family-owned business. His contributions to our community and his industry are immeasurable and the judges were pleased to select him for this award.”