Warsaw native Tyler Huffer has worn many hats as he has found different ways to serve the community. He has served as a paramedic, is now a pre-planner at Titus Funeral Home and is getting involved in local politics. Photo by Lauren Zeugner.

By Lauren Zeugner
InkFreeNews

WARSAW  — Tyler Huffer has worn many hats while serving the Warsaw community.

The Warsaw native grew up on Main Street. A graduate of Warsaw High School, he attended IUPUI for college.
He has worked as an EMT and then went on to earn a paramedic’s license where he served locally for many years with Parkview and Parkview Samaritan. He started at Titus Funeral Home and stayed on staff after Cory Benz purchased the business.

At Titus, Huffer is a pre-planning specialist, assisting clients in pre-planning their funeral. He is also a community outreach coordinator, helping create healing experiences through unique and personalized life celebrations.

He is currently finishing up mortuary school and has his life insurance agent’s license. Huffer explained the state of Indiana requires anyone assisting a customer with pre-planning a funeral to be a licensed life insurance agent.

“You’re still serving the community,” he said. “As a paramedic you care for a patient for 20-30 minutes. Here you care for a family for weeks, months and years.”

“The funeral home is such a community pillar,” he said.

He has served as the Plain Township Trustee, overseeing fire, EMS, township assistance and township government. Huffer said he got involved in local politics through his desire to serve.

More recently he won the county coroner caucus after Tony Ciriello resigned to run for county council. He is now finishing up Ciriello’s term, which required he and the chief deputy coroner to take a 40-hour training course in medicolegal death investigator training. He then had to observe an autopsy in Fort Wayne. Huffer explained in Indiana autopsies are performed by board certified pathologists.

As coroner he is on call 24 hours, seven days a week. His job as a pre-planner at Titus allows him the flexibility to come and go as he needs for his role as coroner.

He said his current plans are to finish mortuary school and run for reelection. “After that it’s a blank slate,” he said.

Huffer is a full-time resident of Chapman Lake. He recently resigned from the board of the Chapman Lake Conservation Association, where he served for 10 years.

“I enjoy the lake; it’s a small community,” he said.
He enjoys waterskiing and pontooning. He shares his home with a Yorkie named Sprout, who loves to go on the boat with him, and two cats who do not.