About Holly Blue Hawkins, RCK
Holly Blue Hawkins, RCK, is a natural deathcare advocate, cemeterian, author and poet. An innovative environmental educator since the 1980’s, she co-authored The Green Burial Master Class Companion with Lee Webster, and is co-creator of The Green Burial Masterclass and You Shall Surely Bury: Jewish and Green Cemeteries, both of which are 12-module online courses hosted by Redesigning the End.
Her experience as staff Cemeterian at Temple Beth El Community Center in Aptos, California, included facilitating burials, overseeing care of TBE’s two historic cemeteries, updating records and mapping systems, working with clergy, local mortuaries and families, and shepherding the transition of one of the cemeteries towards Hybrid Green Burial status. Now retired from the staff position, she still volunteers jointly with TBE and the local Soquel Pioneer & Historical Association to rehabilitate the community’s Gold Rush Era cemetery into a beloved historical landmark and study site for methods of nature-scaping neglected urban community resources.
Holly Blue’s focus on natural burial as a means for land restoration has led her to explore, document and teach on death and burial-related subjects from England to Hawai’i. She has presented at international conferences, consulted with cemetery management and mortuary personnel, trained home funeral guides, taught community college extension courses and is a passionate advocate for environmentally restorative and culturally-sensitive burial practices.
Holly Blue is a member of the Conservation Burial Alliance and served on the Board of Trustees of the Funeral Consumers Alliance of California. She is a Rosha Chevra Kadisha, proud graduate and former faculty member of Gamliel Institute. As a founding member of the advisory team for Ben Zakkai Institute, curriculum designer and staff educator for the Jewish Association for Death Education (JADE), she brings her love for Jewish tradition into contemporary settings, reweaving ancient values, tools and practices into the context of 21st Century life.
Her experience as staff Cemeterian at Temple Beth El Community Center in Aptos, California, included facilitating burials, overseeing care of TBE’s two historic cemeteries, updating records and mapping systems, working with clergy, local mortuaries and families, and shepherding the transition of one of the cemeteries towards Hybrid Green Burial status. Now retired from the staff position, she still volunteers jointly with TBE and the local Soquel Pioneer & Historical Association to rehabilitate the community’s Gold Rush Era cemetery into a beloved historical landmark and study site for methods of nature-scaping neglected urban community resources.
Holly Blue’s focus on natural burial as a means for land restoration has led her to explore, document and teach on death and burial-related subjects from England to Hawai’i. She has presented at international conferences, consulted with cemetery management and mortuary personnel, trained home funeral guides, taught community college extension courses and is a passionate advocate for environmentally restorative and culturally-sensitive burial practices.
Holly Blue is a member of the Conservation Burial Alliance and served on the Board of Trustees of the Funeral Consumers Alliance of California. She is a Rosha Chevra Kadisha, proud graduate and former faculty member of Gamliel Institute. As a founding member of the advisory team for Ben Zakkai Institute, curriculum designer and staff educator for the Jewish Association for Death Education (JADE), she brings her love for Jewish tradition into contemporary settings, reweaving ancient values, tools and practices into the context of 21st Century life.
Holly Blue in the News
Holly Blue is frequently interviewed and writes on natural death care, home funerals, green burial, creating spiritual wills, and on Jewish rituals and practices around caring for the deceased and their families. Sample articles featuring Holly Blue include:
- In Green After Life: How death can be one final act for the Earth, Good Times Santa Cruz's Roxanne Hoorin dubbed her "The Grin Reaper" in the March 8, 2023 edition
- Expert in Jewish burials is devoted to making them more ‘green’, by Emma Goss, The Jewish News of California, April 20, 2022
- Lessons for Living from the Burial Society by Marjorie Ingall, Tablet Magazine, July 17, 2019
- How Do You Empower Your Loved Ones Before You Die by Colleen Ferguson, SevenPonds, July 28, 2018
- Death Cafe: Talk about dying and eat cake, too, by Jessica Yadegaran, SFGate, January 20, 2014
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"Having Holly as my predecessor in the role of Cemeterian at Temple Beth El has been incredibly beneficial for me, both professionally and personally. She built this position from the ground up and has fully supported me, enabling me to thrive in my role." |