38 | T H E B A R OSSA M AG
If you didn’t know this child’s
future, one could consider
what followed to be an unusual
pastime for someone of
Clayton’s tender years.
Curiosity taught him back pages
of newspapers were filled with
funeral notices and because he
lived so close to West Terrace
Cemetery, why couldn’t he hop
on his bicycle and learn more?
“I investigated,” Clayton says.
“I watched funerals at
churches...I could watch from
my bike and see what was
going on. Then at West Terrace
Cemetery, I’d look to see if
there was a burial happening.”
What Clayton discovered was
a celebration of life facilitated
by a team of caring people who
provided one last opportunity
to say goodbye - he didn’t have
that with Narnie.
“That’s when I decided that’s
what I wanted to do,” Clayton
says.
“That was the calling. I could
see that I could do what
they were doing. It was my
background, in my nature.”
The journey continued for
Clayton as he sought more
information on a topic children
were supposed to be blissfully
ignorant of.
“I had to find out how you get a
career in this industry and there
is not a lot of information at all.
“So then I started to go and visit
funeral parlours.”
Clayton has to laugh, he knows
how odd his story must sound
- don’t most ten year old boys
want to be firefighters?
He speaks of funeral directors
“humouring” him and telling
him to come back when he’s
older and the plot in the
backyard where wooden clothes
pegs marked the site of any
“dearly departed” insects he
found.
“A caterpillar, butterfly…
whatever I found dead in the
backyard, I didn’t care. It got
buried!
“And because I lived in a pub,
there were lots of matchboxes
and I would collect them... I had
my own little register, where
I would record everything. I
knew it was all in the newspaper
so I had to record everything I
was doing.
“I just wanted to give them
respect, that’s it.”
Clayton was 13 years old when,
whilst with his father on a
business trip to Kapunda, he
met funeral director, Kon
Pfitzner.
He could never have imagined
that years later he would own
Pfitzner Funerals because at
the time, he was just doing
his regular school holiday
“research”.
“I didn’t go to playgrounds...
I went looking for cemeteries
and funeral parlours!” he
laughs.
“I went around the front, no
one there. I see there is a back
entrance so I walk around the
block and there was Mr Pfitzner
with a hearse… So, I introduced
myself.
“He was very receiving; he
didn’t shoo me away. He
thought oh well, it’s a career
and not many people want to
do it.
“That’s the first time I saw
somebody. He showed me
someone in a coffin and said
this is what is going to happen
and that was that.”
A student counsellor at Unley
High School immediately
recognised Clayton’s caring,
empathetic nature and passion
for the industry.
“He actually got what I needed
to pursue what I wanted to do.”
Work experience with Daryl
Blackwell at FW Blackwell,
led Clayton to being offered a
position as a funeral director’s
assistant.
“My year of schooling ended
on November 24 and on
November 28, 1978, I started
working in the funeral industry.
I was sixteen.”
Forty years on, Clayton can say
he has reached the pinnacle
of his industry after being
mentored by some of the best
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