On the fence about this, but my associate at my work not going to the funeral for the previous owner of this company, said it would be too uncomfortable. I can kind of understand from his point, he only worked under him for just a few days a couple years back and hardly knew the guy, and it should be his choice whether to go to someones funeral or not. Some people are disturbed by going to funerals, and avoid them besides close family members.
The thing is I work at a locally owned company and everyone at the store looks at the employees as "family". They decided to close the store 6 hours early so all employees would be able to attend, while still receiving pay for the full day. He and I both know he will suffer repercussions for not going, he may even get fired (unfair, but I'm sure the reaction towards his absence will have some consequences). I guess it's just hard for me to understand why someone would risk their job, and work relationships over sitting in a room for 30 minutes to pay respects to the guy who hired him when he would have been working otherwise.