Founder Holly Pruett

I’m Holly Pruett. I bring people together to help prepare for, live with, and talk about death.

Life-Cycle Celebrant, Home Funeral Guide, Conversation Leader & Consultant

  • I work with families and communities to create unique, personalized ceremonies that support bereavement and remembrance, including supporting families to care for their dead at home.
  • Starting in early 2013 I served as principal organizer of PDX Death Café, acknowledged as the largest death café across 50+ countries. Now an advisor to the next generation of PDX Death Café leaders, I’ve led Death Cafés at restaurants, libraries, hospice programs, community centers, college reunions, and a music festival.
  • I led the successful 500-person, 10-hour day of programming Death:OK, Let’s Talk About It, held in Portland, Oregon in 2015.
  • I served for three years as a facilitator with Oregon Humanities’ Talking About Dying conversation program.
  • For 30 years I served the community through local, state, and national non-profit organizations as a community organizer, executive director, and consultant.  
  • My principal teachers in this work have been the deaths I have attended; I’ve written extensively about my father and my dear friend Marcy Westerling, among others. My work with Lynda Martin-McCormick on her husband’s home funeral was featured in a short video: Death DIY.
  • I’m a writer with a popular blog on meaningful celebrations and commemorations; I serve as a frequent source for the media.
Education & Professional Training
Holly is available to:
  • Design and officiate customized rituals and ceremonies for individuals, families, organizations, and communities
  • Serve as a sounding board to individuals and families as they explore, determine, and plan for what will happen during their dying time and after their death
  • Provide public speaking, media interviews, training, and community consultation on a range of topics related to how we die, how we mourn, and how we remember our dead
  • Advise organizations and communities on designing and producing community conversations and other events
  • Support new practitioners through personal consultation