If you’ve attended a funeral in Chicago, you’ve probably witnessed the reach of Tim Kowalski’s work.
Over the span of 30-plus years teaching at the Worsham College of Mortuary Science in Wheeling, he schooled more than 3,000 students on how to embalm and prepare bodies for viewing. And, as important, he worked to make sure they knew to pay attention to the living and show compassion for the needs of the bereaved.
There are few colleges like Worsham, the launching pad for the careers of many who run funeral homes in the Chicago area and beyond.
“You name a funeral director in Chicago,” said Leili McMurrough, the mortuary school’s president. “They were all taught by Tim. Very few people have the privilege of shaping a profession. And Tim did exactly that.”
Mr. Kowalski, who retired in 2024, died May 27. His family did not give the cause of death. He was 75.
McMurrough said he helped his students focus on the dignity of the deceased and act with reverence.
“He wouldn’t use words like ‘tools’ while embalming,” she said. “It was always ‘instruments.’ He really took teaching seriously. He wasn’t casual about the responsibility of educating future funeral directors. He’d walk in the classroom, and the room would just go quiet because Tim was there.”
Joseph Rago studied under Mr. Kowalski’s tutelage at Worsham.
“This is a profession where you need to know how to handle the most sensitive of times,” said Rago, who went on to teach at the school and to operate Rago Brothers Funeral Homes. “And I think Tim was good in instructing that and preparing us for that.”
For many years, working with his students, Mr. Kowalski helped oversee the process of indigent burials in Cook County, handling everything from embalming to graveside prayers.
In 2011, as the plywood coffins of 24 people who didn’t have family members willing or able to pay for a funeral or who had no family were being place in the ground at Memorial Gardens Cemetery in Homewood, Mr. Kowalski offered these words, as Chicago Sun-Times columnist Neil Steinberg reported:
“We commend to God the souls of these individuals whose mortal remains lie before us and commit their bodies to earth … We did not know these people. Many things about them will remain always a mystery to us. We do not know what were the circumstances of their lives. Many may have died in poverty. Others might have simply outlived their families. Our beginnings do not know our ends. We do not know any of these things. But one thing we do know, they were human beings. And, at the end of their lives, they deserve to be treated with respect. Our common humanity demands that these lives should not pass from the earth unremembered.”
Nikkia L. Brown was among the Worsham students who helped with the burials that day.
“I remember Mr. Kowalski kind of handpicked us all to be a part of that, and it was kind of special for me,” Brown said. “I was just a girl who was brand new, I wasn’t born in the industry, my family isn’t involved in funeral homes, it’s just me. And it was something that was touching for me. For these people who didn’t have family, and we’re the last people they encounter, giving them a dignified burial — it was an honor. I consider it sacred. And Mr. Kowalski made that happen.”
Mr. Kowalkski was known to some “Special K” because of his last name and to others as “Cobra” because his exacting standards could sting.
“He was just one of a kind,” said Brown, who operates In Touch Funeral & Cremation Services on the South Side. “He was very humble, but he was also like the GOAT of embalming. And he knew it. And he knew that everyone looked up to him and really valued him.”
Brown said she and other former students occasionally bent Mr. Kowalski’s ear with problems as they progressed in their careers.
Mr. Kowalski, who lived on the Northwest Side, attended the old Weber High School, Loyola University Chicago and Mundelein Seminary. He then served as a Catholic priest but decided to resign active ministry and attend Worsham, working in the funeral industry before beginning his teaching career.
He loved traveling, Renaissance art, Egyptology, gourmet food and Mary Jane, his wife.
“He was kind, compassionate and dedicated,” his wife said. “He was a professional. He had high standards.
“I’m a retired Spanish teacher, and sometimes you don’t know how you impact lives until you hear the words of your former students. And they knew him and loved him. He was very demanding, and the students always rose to the occasion.”
Services have been held.