About Us

 Dale Gunter is a native and life long resident of St. Petersburg, Florida with the exception of the two years he attended Miami-Dade Community College Department Of Mortuary Science in Miami, Florida. He became interested in the prospects of funeral service as a career at the age of sixteen while a student at Northeast High School.

Through his mother who worked for the Social Security Administration at the time and knew some of the funeral directors who would bring families in for claims assistance, Dale was introduced to a licensed funeral director who spent time with him explaining the role of the funeral director, different aspects of funeral service, and the advantages as well as some possible disadvantages of a career in funeral service. After hours of discussions, a tour of the facilities, and a ride on an ambulance call as an observer (yes, this funeral home still had ambulance service at that time), Dale was convinced that he wanted to learn more.

He was told that an embalming operation was about the only thing that he had not witnessed at this point. He was offered the opportunity to observe and told that if it did not bother him and he still wanted to pursue this line of work, he would probably be good at it. He started working at that funeral home shortly thereafter on weekends until he graduated high school and became a full-time employee.

He served his internship and then moved to Miami. Upon graduation from Miami-Dade in 1971, he passed the Florida state board examination and received his embalmer’s license and returned to St. Petersburg where he then served another year internship and passed a second state board examination for funeral directing. He served many St. Petersburg, Clearwater, and Tampa area families working for a few area funeral homes until 1993 when he opened the E. Dale Gunter Funeral Home & Cremation Services, Inc.

Dale is married to Dolly W. Gunter. They have two daughters, Debbie and husband, Bill Byrne, Denise and husband, Bryan Quigley, and a son, Daniel, and seven grandchildren, Tiffani Byrne, Colin Quigley, Abby Byrne, Jadyn Byrne  and Dillon Quigley (not pictured: Ethan Byrne and Jacob Quigley).