Cemetery
Nobody really likes taxes. . . .But, then again, nobody wants their loved ones forgotten either. If you are in the Death Care business you know of the costs to operate cemeteries. And, since cremation has been growing resulting in a loss of full-body cemetery lots being sold, many small cemeteries without the…
This recent article from the Smithsonian Magazine mentions that “Brooklyn’s Green-Wood Cemetery—a sprawling, hilly burial ground filled with tombstones from the 19th and 20th centuries—has long been a destination for more than the dead. Established in 1838, the cemetery quickly gained a reputation for its beauty, drawing tourists like other New York attractions such as…
Service Corporation International reported on their 1st Quarter of 2026 about ten days ago and then followed that up with an Earnings Call with stock analysts that follow the company. As usual Funeral Director Daily took a look at the Earnings Call transcript which you can access here and decided to lay out some…
Over the last month or so we have followed a growing discontent in Fresno County, California, and specifically an area along the San Joaquin River about the process of Natural Organic Reduction (NOR) remains being spread on public land. As you can read in this recent article from the Desert Sun “Fresno County officials…
I’m not an economics major but I know that the price I can charge for my goods or services is somewhat dictated by the supply and demand of those goods and services. Is that true of cemetery space – everywhere? When the price gets “too high” as determined by the intended consumer that…
Over my years as an active funeral director I would be called to the place of death and eventually ask the family before I left, “Are you thinking about burial or cremation?” If you’re not a funeral director it is a question that needs an answer because how the funeral director would take care…
I’m a big fan of “permanent memorialization” for the simple fact that that memorialization of that type continues to give creedence to a “life that was lived”. I’ve seen the graves and permanent memorialization sites of President John F. Kennedy in Arlington National Cemetery, Paul Revere in the Granary Burying Ground of Boston, President…
Service Corporation International (SCI) recently participated at the J.P. Morgan Industrials Conference and were represened there by Senior Vice-President and Treasurer Aaron Foley. Seeking Alpha provided a transcript of Foley’s comments and answers to questions that you can access here. In those comments and questions one gets an idea of how SCI…
Late last week Fox 6 TV of Milwaukee, Wisconsin, broke a story pertaining to Death Care that I found to be incredulous. Here’s the headline, “Milwaukee County funeral home debt; officials move to collect fees”. You can access the story here. The headline itself is fairly innocuous but the story goes on to…
Green-Wood Cemetery, the venerable and historic cemetery in New York City announced last week a plan to become the first facility on America’s East Coast that will offer Natural Organic Reduction (NOR) or Terramation within its facililty. Legalized in the state of New York in 2023, Green-Wood says, according to this recent article from…
