Instructors Biographical Information

Vernie R. Fountain

Vernie Fountain, CFSP (Certified Funeral Service Practioner)
Embalmer & Post Mortem Reconstructive Surgery Specialist, Funeral Director, Private Investigator

Vernie Fountain has been associated with funeral service since 1965. As a graduate of the Kentucky School of Mortuary Science, Fountain became licensed as a funeral director in 1972 and as an embalmer in 1977. For eighteen years, until December 1995, he owned and operated Fountain Mortuary Service in Columbia, Missouri, which responded to over one-thousand deaths annually and had five divisions: Embalming and Transportation, Forensic and Clinical Autopsy/Investigation, Cemetery (Exhumations & Grave openings), Embalming Consulting and Fountain National Academy of Professional Embalming Skills.

He currently owns and operates Fountain Embalming Services, Fountain National Academy of Professional Embalming Skills and Forensic Investigative Resources of the Midwest (F.I.R.M.) a licensed and insured private detective agency that has a main focus of death investigations and exhumations. All are headquartered in Springfield , Missouri .

Fountain National Academy , which was founded in May 1990, is a full-time venture for Fountain who is the Academy's founder and primary instructor. As a well-known speaker he travels throughout the United States and abroad speaking at State and National Funeral Directors and Embalmers conventions teaching post-graduate education to embalmers. His focus is on teaching highly specia liz ed embalming and postmortem reconstructive surgery techniques that can be performed on the most massively traumatized case imaginable. FNA is dedicated to providing quality post-graduate embalmer education and the research and development of new techniques to treat the highly traumatized case with the goal of an open-casket viewing. Fountain National Academy offers several in-depth embalming and postmortem reconstructive surgery seminars at its training facility located in Springfield , Missouri . Professional embalmers from across the United States , England , Canada , Mexico , Puerto Rico , Korea , Grenada , Seychelles , Germany , Ireland , Wales , Scotland , Switzerland and Australia have attended these seminars. The Academy has a European division representative in England and an Australian division with representatives located in Sydney and Traralgon , Australia .

In 1983 Fountain received training on the handling of radiation accident fatalities, and as Multi-Death Disaster Coordinator by the Federal Emergency Management Agency in Emmitsburg , Maryland and the National Funeral Directors Association. Since 1983 he has conducted numerous training seminars regarding Mass Fatality Disaster Management in Missouri and throughout the United States, and often shares the instructors role with the FBI Disaster Squad personnel and other forensic disaster experts, training numerous funeral directors, embalmers and other related disciplines regarding mass fatality disaster response.

Fountain served for several years, until 1996, as the Regional Team Commander for the (DMORT) Federal Disaster Mortuary Operational Response Team - Region 7 that is part of the National Disaster Medical System. In 1986 he was awarded a Certificate of Appreciation from then Missouri Governor John Ashcroft for his efforts in Missouri statewide Emergency Management and Multiple Death Disaster Preparedness. In 1994 he was presented an Outstanding Service Award from Admiral Frank Young MD Director of the National Disaster Medical System for his service as lead coordinator in the Hardin, Missouri cemetery flood disaster in 1993 and for his response to the Albany Georgia Cemetery Complex flood of 1994. In 1993 Fountain received the coveted Law Enforcement Commendation Medal presented by the National Society of the Sons of the American Revolution. In 1997 he was appointed by the National Disaster Medical System as the DMORT National Training Officer and served in that position until his resignation on July 1, 2000. In September 2000 he accepted a position with Global-BMS, a disaster recovery organization, as National Team Coordinator for its United States Disaster Recovery Team. He resigned his position with Global/BMS in November 2005 to pursue other business interests. He has written numerous mass fatality disaster Standard Operational Plans, Team Commander Manuals, Team Member Handbooks and Protocols for preparation and repatriation of human remains related to Mortuary Disaster Response.

Fountain has presented programs in Europe, Australia , Puerto Rico and across the U.S. In addition to presenting programs at state and national funeral directors conventions, he has presented programs at mortuary schools, hospitals, civic organizations, high school and university classes.

An advocate of organ donations, Fountain has worked as a liaison/consultant with various organ and tissue agencies, and conducts embalming seminars for the professional embalmer that deal with embalming and reconstructive surgery techniques following the donation process.

He is former Chief Death Investigator for the Boone County Medical Examiner's Office and Investigator for the Callaway County, Missouri Medical Examiner's Office, and served for several years as a forensic autopsy assistant and cranial autopsy instructor. Fountain also assisted as an adjunct instructor in Major Crime Squad Case training for law enforcement investigators that was conducted by the University of Missouri at Columbia .

Fountain has successfully completed the prestigious Master's Course in Forensic Death Investigation at St. Louis University . He has attended several other courses in forensic death investigation including one on the reconstruction of facial features presented by world-renowned expert Betty Pat Gatliff at the University of South Alabama Institute for Environmental and Forensic Sciences. Fountain has also received death investigation training at the New York City Medical Examiner's Office.

Attorneys from across the U.S. also call him upon to serve as a consultant and expert witness in civil law suits in the areas of embalming and reconstructive surgery. As a professional embalmer specia liz ing in difficult and traumatized case he has been called upon to perform Post Mortem Reconstructive surgery on some of the most severely traumatize cases imaginable to achieve open casket viewing.

Embalmers from across the U.S. and abroad frequently contact Fountain for consultation and guidance regarding severely difficult or highly traumatized embalming cases.

Fountain is a very active member of the Missouri Funeral Directors Association and has for many years been Chairman of its Mass Fatality Disaster Emergency Response Committee and Chairman of its Organ and Tissue Committee. He is past president of the Missouri Funeral Supply Sales Club, a member of the National Funeral Directors Association, a member of the Funeral Ethics Association and former member of the National Association of Medical Examiners and past board member of the Associated Funeral Directors International. He is also a member of the Pi Sigma Eta Mortuary Fraternity.

During his seventeen-years of owning and operating a grave opening service Fountain was called upon numerous times to exhume human remains which gained him a vast knowledge regarding exhumations. In 1995 Fountain, as a member of the exhumation team, assisted Dr. James Starrs with the exhumation of the body of the famous Missouri Outlaw Jesse James who was shot and killed on April 3, 1882 in St. Joseph , Missouri . In 2003 he served as embalming consultant for Engel Brothers Media Inc. that produces the TV documentary “Mummy Road Show” which aired on the National Geographic television channel November 24, 2003. He is currently consulting with a production company that produces shows for National Geographic regarding a documentary of the Hardin Cemetery Disaster that occurred in 1993. A British film crew visited his office and filmed a TV segment regarding his expertise in the area of Post Mortem Reconstructive Surgery.

He and his wife Joy currently reside in Springfield , Missouri . Fountain is a proud member of the United States Marine Corps and the Disabled American Veterans. He was medically retired from the USMC after being wounded by enemy fire in Vietnam on May 9, 1970. He has two daughters Audrey age 2, Ellen age 5, one adult daughter Kim and one adult son Mark.

Mrs. John “Liz” Davis, Embalmer
FNA's European Representative
Guest Lecturer, Lab Assistant

Glebe Cottage
Luccombe
Nr Minehead
Somerset , England TA24 8TE
Phone: 011-44-1-643-863-067
E-mail: john@embalm.demon.co.uk

In Loving Memory .....

John Davis
September 6, 1952 - June 7, 2005

Former European Representative for Fountain National Academy
Former Owner, Principal Tutor,
Midland School of Embalming
Luccombe, England

John's profound dedication to the profession of embalming and post mortem reconstructive surgery will be sadly missed. Knowing John as I do, he would find a great deal of comfort in knowing that his teachings, through the professional embalmers who learned from him, will silently help families through the grieving process for generations to come. His professional expertise along with his warm and caring nature endeared him to all who knew him. He was a dedicated husband to Liz, the love of his life, and father to three sons. To Fountain National Academy and me he was a great professional, a dear friend and actually more like a brother. I will always miss him greatly.

Vernie Fountain
Fountain National Academy