Cemetery
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…
Funeral directors should feel good about their role in helping the “The Department of Veterans Affairs’ National Cemetery Administration earn the highest customer satisfaction score ever achieved by any public or private organization measured by the American Customer Satisfaction Index (ACSI), as part of the group’s 2025 report.” According to this press release…
I’ve been around the Death Care business my whole life. . . . and one thing I can tell you is that, like other businesses, “things” change. For instance, Death Care clientele used to spend a high percentage of their “Death Care spend” on caskets and other merchandise. That’s not always the case anymore.…
Texas Senator John Cornyn authored a bill that was passed by the Senate, the House, and signed into law by President Trump in late December 2025, that was included in the 2026 National Defense Authorization Act. The bill, as you can see and read in this news video report and print article from…
