Craig Tremble, funeral director and owner of Craig R. Tremble Funeral Home, has served as a Bulloch County deputy coroner for 27 years and for 23 of those years as chief deputy coroner. Since May he has been the Democratic nominee for the elected office of coroner.

Now, with early voting down to its final few days, he and Republican candidate Chuck Francis are headed toward the finish line, with Tuesday, Nov. 5, being the traditional Election Day, when polls will be open 7 a.m.-7 p.m. before the votes are counted. Theirs is a friendlier contest than many, with each of the candidates saying he'll continue as one of the deputy coroners if the other one wins.

Both candidates say that coroner is a full-time responsibility in the sense of being in charge of an office that is on call at all hours, seven days a week. But neither sees the elected office evolving in the next term to one in which the elected coroner would be a full-time administrator unable to work in another job or business.

"It's a full-time, 24-hour role, but I will still be able to manage the funeral home business at this present time," said Tremble. "But I do have people that work for me that help with the funeral home."

Career and education

A Bulloch County native, he grew up in the Leefield area, where his father was a farmer. 

Tremble graduated in 1992 from Gupton Jones College of Funeral Service in Decatur and is a licensed funeral director and embalmer. He also attained a Bachelor of Arts in Biblical Studies from Guido Bible College in Metter.

He worked with James R. Barnes Mortuary for years before starting his own funeral home in 2001. Today, Craig R. Tremble Funeral Home operates a Pembroke Chapel as well as its original Statesboro location and has been in business for 23 years.

Also a pastor

For 28 years now, the Rev. Craig Tremble has also served as pastor of Second Saint John Missionary Baptist Church, on Fair Road in Statesboro.

Barry Turner was the coroner when Tremble started as a deputy coroner. Turner was followed in the elected role by Jake Futch, also a funeral director and minister, who retired as coroner in April 2023. Richard Pylant, also previously a deputy coroner, was appointed to serve the remainder of previous coroner Jake Futch's term after Futch retired in April 2023. Pylant chose not to seek the elected office, and his term will end Dec. 31, after which the candidates say he will return to being deputy coroner, and whichever of them wins will have four deputies, including his election opponent.

"That's the agreement," Tremble said.

All of the deputy coroners work on-call and are paid based on the number of cases and hours worked.

The elected coroner is similarly on call but also has some administrative responsibilities.

'They need understanding'

Tremble "wants to continue to move the coroner's office forward and just be transparent and honest and compassionate with the community, and especially with families when they're going through their time of bereavement," he said. "You know, they need understanding."

A part of the coroner's role, as Tremble sees it, is "just helping the families understand what has happened," by supplying information in a compassionate way.

Cooperation with other agencies is also important, he observed.

"Of course we work hand-in-hand with the Sheriff's Department and all the local law enforcement, as well as the Georgia Bureau of Investigation. …," Tremble said. "We've been working well in this county, and I just want to continue that."

As a deputy coroner, he has not been involved with the office's budgeting and funding at this point.

"But from my understanding, so far it's fine," Tremble said. "I guess once I get in I can kind of find out what's going on from our county commissioners and just once again assess what the coroner's office needs to continue to fulfill the role.

"Of course, the county is growing; there may be a possibility of adding another deputy coroner to help with the growth. …," he said. "One person can't do it all, so the support of the deputies helps the county out, because there may be times that we have two calls at one time."

Tremble was at first one of two Democrats in the race for coroner. The other was Matthew Lovett, also a funeral home owner but not one of the deputy coroners. Tremble took almost 63% of the votes in the May 21 Democratic primary.