Joseph (Jody) Alva Brandenburg, president of Hardage-Giddens Funeral Homes and Cemeteries, died June 10.
He was 81.
Arrangements are entrusted to Hardage-Giddens, The Oaklawn Chapel, 4801 San Jose Blvd.
Born May 23, 1943, to Patricia and Roger Brandenburg, he was raised in Homestead in the last house on a road that led into Everglades National Park.
While in high school, Brandenburg worked part-time at a family member’s pharmacy and began to learn the business.
When Brandenburg graduated from high school, he had saved enough money to pay for his first year at the University of Georgia, where he planned to seek a degree in pharmacy.
A summer job at a funeral home changed his course from the drugstore and set him on the path to his career as a funeral director.
Instead of heading north to UGA, Brandenburg headed west to Texas and graduated from the Dallas Institute of Funeral Service.
Returning to Florida, he became a licensed funeral director and embalmer, then entered the corporate and management side of the business as the Houston-based Southern region president for Service Corporation International.
In 1977, Brandenburg lived in Jacksonville when SCI oversaw the merger of the Hardage and the Giddens funeral homes.
Brandenburg began leading Hardage-Giddens Funeral Homes in Jacksonville in 1990.
For nearly 20 years, Brandenburg was a member of the state Board of Funeral, Cemetery and Consumer Services and is a past-chair.
He was a philanthropist to many charities including River Garden Senior Services, Community Hospice, Children’s Home Society of Florida, American Heart Association, American Diabetes Association, Rotary Club of Jacksonville, Police Council of Jacksonville, Safari Club International, Cummer Museum Ponce De Leon Society, Museum of Contemporary Art Jacksonville and many others.
Brandenburg is survived by his wife since 1987, Janne, his brother, Roger Brandenburg (Joan), children Dale Linder (Elizabeth), Joel Brandenburg Jr. (Ana), Lorelei Figueroa (Juan Carlos) and Elizabeth Brandenburg.
He was grandfather to Dale Linder DiLalla, Joseph Brandenburg III, Drew Daniel (Ashley), Emily Frattarelli (Josh), Brooke Brandenburg, Alexa Grace Linder, Eleanor Linder, Jackson Linder, Taelor Anne Linder and had two great-grandchildren, Atlas Brandenburg and Willow Watson.
The family asks that in lieu of flowers, please consider a donation to River Garden Hebrew Home for the Aged or Community Hospice of Jacksonville.