2015 Cremationist Article (2)

T H ECREMATIONISTO F N O R T H A M E R I C A

Cremation Memorialization in the Cemetery

Cremation Association of North America • 499 Northgate Parkway, Wheeling, IL 60090 USA

How Hospice Inspired the Business Model for a Cremation Company

Marketing: Beginning with the End in Mind

Protecting Your Business: Risk Management Strategies Are Key

VOL. 51, NO. 1

6 CREMATIONIST – VOL. 51, NO. 1

“By working together, the funeral home and the cemetery reinforce the idea of memorialization at a cemetery. This is critical in the era of cremation, where many cremated remains never end up in a cemetery.” —Mitch Rose

Cremation Memorialization in the Cemetery

by Sara Corkery

CREMATIONIST – Vol. 51, No. 1 7

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As the rate of cremation in North America continues to grow, the amount of traditional burials is dropping. This trend affects many sectors of the death care industry, and cemeteries are no exception. Cemetery operators, designers, service providers, and suppliers are working to meet the inevitable challenges. In order to explore some of the new products and services emerging from this new era of cremation dominance, The Cremationist interviewed Mitch Rose and Elisa Krcileck, two cemetery professionals who are working on the front lines of this shifting environment.

The first thing that I think of with cremation memorialization is the old adage that the consumer who is interested in cremation memorialization doesn’t

necessarily know what they want, but they do know what they don’t like, and in order to determine what they don’t like, they need to see it. So it’s important that the cemetery has a wide product offering to be able to show the consumer what those choices are and then to get a sense of what best suits their needs.

Cremation-minded families often want a naturalistic setting. So many cemeteries have created landscaped gardens with boulders, trees, flowers, and soft edges to the designs of the beds. The cremated remains may exist in the ground with a memorial next to the location, or in an above-ground memorial item, but it’s a very landscaped setting, a natural setting. If there’s a pathway through the garden, it’s not paved, but it’s gravel or mulch.

On the other hand, some cremation-minded families are looking for a more structured appearance, similar to a community mausoleum niche bank or a columbarium. This is often in a patio setting, perhaps with several different columbariums around a fountain. The design is less landscaped and more architecturally interesting.

Lessons from a Glass-Front Niche ProjectAt The Woodlawn, we started doing some retrofitting. We found corners, interior mausoleums, and blank walls where we could put in niche banks. We added curved, glass-front feature niches. These are larger in size to accommodate larger urns and memorabilia (see photo, opposite page). We held an internal sales contest and had the counselors themselves design what would go inside behind the glass front, bringing in memorabilia, picking an urn, etc. We were able to leave one of the sample designs there when the inventory went up, so people could see it, like a pre-furnished condo model. They looked at it and it gave them ideas.

We picked the center, heart-level niches and priced them like we would a heart-level or eye-level mausoleum. This equated to the price of a single crypt, which at first we thought was pretty expensive. But we discovered very quickly, by bringing the consumer to that site, that these niches were what people wanted. They saw other items—niches with lower prices at higher elevations—at a price point that was very inexpensive.

But when they saw the more expensive glass-front, heart-level niches, those sold first. That helped us discover that your expectation of what somebody else is willing to spend is a very dangerous thing. Never put your wallet in somebody else’s hands.

Funeral Home Relations are KeyWith our director of sales and marketing, David Ison, we’ve worked hard at The Woodlawn to develop funeral home relations. We’re an independent cemetery. We’re not a combination and we don’t have funeral home offerings. We do have a crematory, but we primarily offer our cremation services through the funeral homes rather than directly to the public.

With David’s advice, we developed photographs of the sample glass-front niche I described above, including the memorabilia. These photographs were brought to local funeral homes and we spoke to them about what I think is one of the most important things about the death care industry—the fact that funeral homes and cemeteries are really in this together, especially when it comes to serving the cremation customer.

By offering glass-front niches, what we were able to do is demonstrate the value of memorialization, meaning those cremated remains are going to have a final resting place. Placing them behind glass absolutely changed the rules for the funeral home in terms of the urn. So we essentially took all our urns off the marketplace. We don’t compete with funeral homes on urns.

Part One: Mitch Rose of The Woodlawn Cemetery in Bronx, New York

Above: Glass-front niches at The Woodlawn.


continued from page 7But we got the funeral homes to show the photos of the glass-front niches and talk about the fact that The Woodlawn offers them.

They can say, “Here’s a picture of what can be done behind these glass-front niches. We have the dimensions of those niches, so if you’d like, go take a look at the glass-fronts, pick which one you want, come back, and we will look at urns that will fit within that niche.” So that partnership has resulted in some really great opportunities for funeral homes and for cemeteries to satisfy the needs of the cremation-minded consumer.

By working together, the funeral home and the cemetery reinforce the idea of memorialization at a cemetery. This is critical in the era of cremation, where many cremated remains

never end up in a cemetery. You build relationships with the funeral director so the funeral home and the cemetery realize they’re in it together, and an interesting thing happens. By talking about memorialization, the funeral director is also able to promote the idea of ritual. If you’re going to have a memorialization of cremated remains in an urn, the probability that there will be a ceremony—of any kind—is increased, because you’ve created value to permanence. Permanence in memorialization infers the same thing as what happens in a funeral service. You create permanent memories of a final tribute to somebody who has passed. I think those interlocking relationships are critical as we continue to move into the era of cremation-minded families.

Staff Buy-InIf you’re going to open a cremation garden, you want to make sure you have buy-in from your staff. Nothing is worse than investing in a particular inventory of additional niches or a mausoleum, and then your staff isn’t enthusiastic about it or isn’t showing it at the level of frequency that you want them to. People are creatures of habit, so if your sales agents are more oriented to selling the top level of the mausoleum, or they always seem to show a particular ground burial area, it’s important to break that up a little bit.

For The Woodlawn staff, doing this exercise of filling the glass-front niches with memorabilia was fun, it was interesting—it was amazing what we ended up seeing. And it gave them buy-in into representing that product to the families.

We do a lot of in-house training with our staff. Some of them have participated in coming to programs like the CANA cremation symposium, where they’re exposed to great speakers who can recharge them and create more enthusiasm. Even more important is the access to networking with their peers, because the challenges we face are pretty similar across the board.

Show and TellWe have an ossuary for cremated remains. This provides an opportunity for us to offer a fairly inexpensive price-point for New York. With our ossuary, the cremated remains are placed in the non-retrievable commingling vault and an engraved small bronze plate on a cenotaph is included. In terms of value, it’s very reasonable. But if you decide to do an ossuary, make sure it’s placed next to other portions of your cremation garden that have a different value.

In our case, our ossuary sits near our Brookside Garden. The garden has product offerings that include memorial boulders as well as niches and bridges, with various locations to place cremated remains in the bridge. All of this is right next to the ossuary. What has happened consistently is we will notify families of our price variance. They’re interested in the fact that the ossuary offers a less expensive option, and they want to go see it. We show them the ossuary, and right next to it are these other product offerings. The tendency in our case is to sell the ossuary just a handful of times a year in relation to the other various selections.

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Above: Vintage-look bench design for cremated remains.

Above: A bench in place at The Woodlawn Cemetery.


Offering Special OptionsThe Woodlawn is a historic cemetery, so we had a vendor build us custom cremation benches (see photos, p. 8). I took photographs of the various monuments and benches that were in the cemetery, none of which were cremation benches. We gave the pictures to the vendor and the vendor provided us with several designs for what eventually became a historically accurate cremation bench. The final result looked like it was old and built from a different time in terms of the style. The benches were relatively inexpensive to build. However, the price point we put on them was very significant because they were in a very special area with high visibility, and they had a very private, exclusive sense to them. That created, at the very highest price point level we’ve ever seen, a particular message to us that having the wide offering will bring in the consumer. Presenting all those offerings will allow the consumer to make the choice themselves. They’re not going to make that choice until they see it. They’ve go to see all the things they don’t want before they see the thing that they do want.

The shapes and sizes of above-ground inurnment sites are pretty similar to that of monuments now. We think of monuments over an earth burial, and how there are various polishes and colors, sizes, etc. That trend of variation continues to move into above- ground inurnment rites with various shapes and sizes.

Careful Planning and Thoughtful DesignThe amount of space you need to develop cremation inurnment rites is probably the best news about cremation. It’s so small, and the amount of volume you can get into a relatively small area provides a great opportunity. That said, I have seen many cemetery sections for cremation that, unfortunately, over-

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Above: The Woodlawn’s Brookside Cremation Garden.

“Ritual is a pretty broad word. It doesn’t have to be religious. It doesn’t have to be ceremonial. But the ritual of paying respect to the loss of life with survivors is important.” —Mitch Rose

capitalized on that density. The rites themselves were relatively restricted in overall size, but the proximity of each and every one of them was so close that the end effect, once burials were made and inscriptions were added, was a very condensed, almost cluttered look.

I think it’s important to make sure that you don’t overpopulate the size of your cremation garden. It’s a small area that will accommodate a large amount of cremated remains. That can be a very dangerous mistake and one that you have to watch out for before you get excited about how many cremation rites you can get in. The return on investment of an inventory development is certainly driven by the amount of units you’re getting into the confining space you’re developing. If you want to maximize your return, put more units in. But this can create a much denser environment. Aesthetically, that may not be as pleasing to the eye as it may appear to be on your financials. Be careful not to clutter the design. Be cognizant about how it will end up looking.

A good way to do that is through renditions. Today, most of the major suppliers will readily offer Photoshopped renditions. They’ll take a picture of a particular area, then they’ll take it back

to their office and bring you back a Photoshopped design with these particular items in these particular places. Other vendors are using 3-D renditions such as SketchUp, where you’re actually able to move in a three-dimensional sense, where you can actually walk through the design—a virtual tour.

There are many elements to consider with any construction, but in cremation memorialization they’re more important than ever. Certainly you have a manufacturer or supplier, many of which have design and build companies. There are benefits in using a design-build company in relation to one-stop-shop, cost, etc. You may also use an engineering consultant, because what looks good on paper may not necessarily translate physically into the known factors of your physical environment or your regulatory environment. But I think that often a final piece of that three-pronged approach to internal development is missed, and that’s an architect. In the cemetery world, an architect might not come to your mind right away because you’re tending to use design-build, and perhaps an engineer or construction company. But the architects who we’ve found the most success with are those who don’t come from the cemetery industry. They come from the landscaping and building construction industry. What they bring to the table is a high level of awareness of space and spatial dimension. When we’ve developed mausoleum complexes or cremation gardens, or even interior renovations of existing space—retrofits—we’ve become increasingly cognizant through the work of architects of trying to assess what it will feel like when people walk into this space. Is it going to feel like we put something in there that wasn’t there before? Or is it going to feel like what we have added was there all the time, and it’s a natural fit? I think it goes back to development of long-range planning strategies that will allow for the backfilling of interior portions

of your construction. To be developed in the future, but with a retrofitted sensibility.

The tendency is, I’ve been here x number of years, I know where these spaces are, let’s put up a niche bank, let’s get a design-build company, let’s just do it. And I would advise everyone to really step back and realize that with long-term cemetery design—especially when it comes to cremation-minded families—creating an overly dense offering can really backfire. The independent-minded cremation consumer, who is questioning the need for a funeral home or wondering how to minimize the use of the funeral home in many cases, is not even assessing that a cemetery has to fit into this equation at all.

The Value of RitualThese independent-minded consumers won’t come to the cemetery because they don’t see the need. Eighty percent of these cremated remains are not coming to the cemetery. But 100% of the families are using a funeral service provider. So the funeral home environment is always going to be there to serve those who have lost someone.

In the cemetery world, we have a bigger challenge to even get them to think that the cemetery is something they might even want to think about. To do that, funeral home relations are going to become increasingly important. The value of memorialization at a cemetery really does interlock with the value of some kind of ritual.

Ritual is a pretty broad word. It doesn’t have to be religious, it doesn’t have to be ceremonial, but the ritual of paying respect to the loss of life with the survivors is important. How that plays out is, of course, pretty wide open. It can be tough for the funeral service provider to explore new trends in this very traditional industry—an industry, very much like the church, that is bound by past conventions. With more and more unchurched families, we find that they bypass the whole piece. They can do everything online.

Marketing with Social MediaOne thing you need to do is absolutely recognize the power of social media. I don’t have a Facebook account, but if I did, I don’t think I would have an interest in posting all my experiences. But today, for the generation doing that, it is completely natural to post all your experiences on Facebook, especially when it comes to commerce: it was negative, it was positive, I bought this, I bought that. We’re discovering in our digital marketing that it’s a wonderful tool to reach the consumer.

If you want to advertise on Facebook there’s one very important component—you have to have a Facebook account. Your business should have a Facebook account, even if you don’t like Facebook and you don’t want to post. The good news is there


CANA Cemetery Member Survey on Cemeteries and Cremation MemorializationIn preparation for this article, CANA was interested in learning how the recent growth in cremation is impacting our cemetery members and the cremation-related memorialization products and services they provide. In January, we invited our cemetery members to take part in a short survey. A selection of the final responses are summarized below.

What percentage of the interments in your cemetery are allocated to:

What percentage of growth in cremation-related sales has your cemetery experienced over the last ten years?


continued from page 11are a lot of young, energetic, entrepreneurial people who make a business out of digitizing, packaging, preparing, and creating that whole opportunity. It is the way to reach that market and it is the way to get that advertising to the right place. We’re seeing more and more e-mail leads coming in than we ever saw before, all because of the process I just described. When people become engaged, they are more subject to receiving a message in a positive way.

Many years ago we were told, “You gotta have your Yellow Page ad, you gotta have your direct inserts, you gotta do your newspaper advertising, and you gotta do your direct mail because all of them together are what’s going to trigger a response.” Social media gives you the exact same platform. You’ve got to have your Facebook ad, you’ve got to drive people to your website, and your website has to be very friendly and open to creating leads. It’s a whole different world, it’s an entirely different type of marketing, but it’s the same thing—just different tools. Those of us who’ve been in the profession for a long time really have to take a look at our toolbox and come to various conventions and things of that nature to discover other tools out there that we haven’t thought of—or worse, haven’t chosen—to put inside of our toolbox for the twenty-first century.

Adapting and EngagingI’m optimistic because in the history of business and America if you aren’t willing to change and meet that consumer need or consumer preference, that’s okay. Someone else will. And they will take the market. So I’m not overly concerned about what people are changing or how quickly they’re changing. My real concern is how do I adapt my entrenched methodologies, restricted by my long, twenty-five year career? How do I get out of the box and reintegrate tools that I personally may not even use, like Facebook? I have to recognize that others use it so it makes sense.

The overhead of maintaining a cemetery is certainly difficult for an operator. But the value of a cemetery and its upkeep is really a reflection on the community. Your engagement with the community, especially now through social media, is really your only solution to keeping people engaged with the cemetery and keeping them open-minded about what you’re doing and what you’re offering.

At The Woodlawn, we’ve seen a gradual increase in memorialization, and, probably, a more dramatic increase in the average per sale. Because

Which cremation memorialization products and services do you currently offer?

Which cremation memorialization products and services do you plan to offer in future?



“Many times people tell us they’re taking the cremated remains with them, but in the end that’s not what actually happens.” —Elisa Krcilek

cremation-minded families mostly do not go to the cemetery and choose a memorialization, that’s even more reason to make sure that you have a wide range of offerings for the people who do come.

Mitch Rose is currently Chief Executive Officer & President of The Woodlawn Cemetery in Bronx, New York. During his 25-year career in death care he has actively managed medium to large cemeteries, funeral homes, and crematories in the South, Midwest, and Mid-Atlantic regions for Service Corporation International for 9 years and Carriage Services for 11 years. Mitch joined the executive team of The Woodlawn Cemetery, a National Historic Landmark, as Vice President

in 2010. He currently serves as Third Vice President of CANA, where he chairs the Statistics Committee & the Membership Committee. He also serves on the New York State Association of Cemeteries as a Board of Director. Mitch has earned the ICCFE accreditation of CCFE and CrCE, was a professor at the ICCFA University in Memphis for 8 years, and is also a proud member of the Historical Cemetery Alliance & the Cemetery Council.

We are third-generation, owned by the Coury family. It is, in my opinion, the most beautiful cemetery in the East Valley of Arizona. We have 52 acres, but only 24

are developed. So we have space for 150-200 years to come.

Like most cemeteries, originally all the spaces were for traditional burial. The sections for cremation were added in later. The cremation rate in Arizona, both by percentage and total number of cremations, is in the top 10% in the United States.

Changing the Mind SetI’m currently working with just one cemetery and three funeral homes. Because of the growth in the demand for cremation, a lot of what we’re doing at Mountain View is working to change the mind set of our funeral directors and our cemetery operators. We’re trying to do a better job feeding into our cemetery. Our cemetery is a combo, so the families typically come and meet with the funeral directors first.

The first thing we did to work more efficiently with the funeral homes is set up a two-up system, very similar to what you see in

Above: A Memory Vase at Mountain View Cemetery

a lot of other organizations. We have a cemetery professional go in with the funeral director. We make sure that that family is not left alone during the arrangement. When the funeral director steps out to make the final contract for the cremation, I am requiring all the family service counselors to take the family out to the cemetery to see what we have available.

It starts very simply, because right inside our funeral home we have a glass-front niche. It’s a matter of coming out of the building, taking four steps to the left, and introducing the families to the idea of memorialization.

At that point, most of our cremation families will say, “Oh, no, no. We don’t need any of this. We’re taking Mom back to Iowa where she’s from.” We tell them, “We understand that that’s what you’re planning to do. However, it’s not fair to you if we don’t take you through the options we have available.”

Part Two: Elisa Krcilek of Mountain Vew Funeral Homes and Cemetery in Mesa, Arizona



Many times people tell us they’re taking the remains with them, but in the end that’s not what actually happens. Sometimes they realize that because they’re here, this is Mom’s new home. This is where Mom retired, this is where she wanted to be for the duration of her life.

After showing families the glass-front niches, we have our golf cart up front and we immediately take them to the cemetery. We don’t do a lot of talking. The beauty of the majestic cemetery speaks for itself. What we will do is point out areas in the cemetery that specialize in housing cremated remains.

Always Adding Cremation OptionsSome of the things we’ve done—and we’re continually adding more—is finding ways to expand our cremation garden. We have added in what we’re calling a green cremation area because a lot of people say, “Oh, we just want to scatter Dad.” We’re now offering them the option to do this in the cemetery. They can purchase a bio-degradable urn that goes directly in the ground and they don’t need an urn vault.

We’re doing a memory vase memorialization package. A memory vase (see photo, p. 13) is just for vased flowers. It can have their loved one’s name and the dates of their birth and when they passed away casted on it. The vases sit right above where the cremated remains go. Instead of scattering them, we put the biodegradable urn in the earth. The family can be present to do this. The vase is placed over the urn on a 12-by-12, 3-inch-thick granite base.

These memory vases are in various spaces. We’ve identified a multitude of areas in the cemetery that are not plotted for either burial or cremation. They’re just little nooks and crannies of space where there’s nothing. It’s pretty unlimited. So, we thought, “Well, why not beautify the cemetery with flower vases?” It might be in the corner where we have rounded driveways to enter each of our sections. There’s a lot of areas where you just can’t put anything else. What we’ve done is we’ve said, “We can put two here, we can put four here.” We went out and identified areas where we’re just not using our space. It doesn’t look cluttered because the groupings are limited—we don’t want ten together in an area. We are looking to identify a green area where it might be a little larger, we’re not quite developed with that yet. This is what we’re doing on the initial stages of it.

What are people looking for? A lot of the families we serve have chosen cremation because they don’t want to spend thousands and thousands of dollars. So we want to give them something that’s affordable. Additionally, the memory vases are not taking space out of our inventory because these types of spacers weren’t in our inventory to begin with.

What percentage of the cremations you perform are interred in your cemetery?

Nearly 60% of our respondents said they operate a crematory on cemetery grounds. We asked them a few additional questions.

How many cremations do you perform annually?

Why is having a crematory on cemetery grounds important? (Please check all that apply.)



The memory vases provide a way for us to generate more income, but, more importantly, they’re a way to get the families to come back. When they come back, when they visit, it gives them a reason to come in. It keeps us in touch with them. That way, when we have a Memorial Day service or a Veteran’s Day service, we have a way to be able to get in contact with these people to invite them to these events we have and then talk to them about, “Well, what about yourself? Have you preplanned your funeral? Have you preplanned your cremation?”

Engaging Cemetery VisitorsWe do a lot of things to find out what people want. First of all, we’re collecting e-mails now when we do the arrangements. We do a lot of “park-rangering.” We just go up to people in the cemetery, give them a bottled water, and start a conversation. You would be amazed how many people will say, “I’ve been visiting my husband for twelve years and you’re the first person that’s ever come up and talked to me.” So it’s just a matter of being friendly and saying hello. I’ve never had somebody say, “Leave me alone.” Of course, you have to use some discretion, too.

You also start to see patterns of people who come in on a regular basis. Sometimes you’ll see a family come in on the weekend and it might be a special occasion, it might be a birthday. So we don’t approach them right when they first arrive. It might be a half an hour or an hour. When you see them wandering around, looking at other graves, that might be a good time to walk up.

Team TrainingI do a monthly training with my team and I have “Best Practices.” That’s where we sit down and say “Best practices for park-rangering: these are the things you want to do, these are the things you don’t want to do. For example, if you’re doing a graveside service you are not to be out there handing out your business cards to everybody. You can keep your business cards with you, and if somebody approaches you and says, ‘Hey, I’d like to get some information’—and that, believe it or not, happens a lot—then you’re allowed to give out your card.”

Most of that conversation comes at the end of an interment, where people are standing around. They like to see the vault lowered into the ground, they like to see the urn placed. We talk to them and make sure to say hello because they’ve already met us at the arrangement.


Above: Memorialization options at Mountain View cemetery with cremation benches and boulders

What advice can you offer to your fellow CANA members about meeting the opportunities and challenges of an expanding demand for cremation?

• Plan for the future. Be prepared for what is coming, do not wait for it to get here. If you run out of space because you have not planned ahead you are not serving your cemetery or the people that want to be there.

• Continue to make cremation interments an EVENT for families. Do not minimize the interment process simply because it is easier to inter cremated remains compared to a casket.

• Be open to suggestions from families, have a policy IN WRITING —and STICK TO IT—regarding the disposition of cremated remains.

• Diversify as much as possible and promote the value of the experience at least as much as the goods and services.

• Offer everything. When a family says they want to take dad home, ask “Why?” and why they do not want a permanent placement?

• Always ask the family to take a tour of the cemetery before they make a final decision about what they are going to do with Mom or Dad.

• Provide as many options as possible

• Listen to the changing needs of your customers and adapt by providing solutions that are important to them. Provide more choice and options for people.

• Price it to make money. We in the industry have made cremation inexpensive, not consumers. And they do not mind paying for service and quality.


I start all of my staff meetings with a victory story. We go around and every person has to tell a success story about something that’s worked for them. The people around think, “Oh, maybe that does work!” because when you hear a real-life story, with a real name attached to it, suddenly it becomes contagious. I want each one of them to have buy-in with their victory stories because they’ll have a passion for the things they were able to sell.

We have our Desert Storm mausoleum that’s 99% sold out. We just opened it up for cremation private estates, so we went on a tour of the building—“Guys, this is a spot you can sell. . . ”—and they all got very excited. Now they can see that as a new revenue flow.

Now it’s strictly cremation in there. We added cremation pedestals, we have columbariums for two people or four people—and we have a girl who sold the first one. You need the first one sold to get everybody committed. My team members never took families out to our Desert Storm mausoleum because there was very little inventory left out there. Now they have a reason to show it to the families.

Another thing we’re doing is focusing on veterans. We’re developing ground space around our flagpole that is exclusively for veterans and their

Designing and Building for Cremation MemorializationThe biggest change we’ve seen in our services with the rise of cremation is the demand for more cremation gardens. We are designing more and more of them every year.

Cemeteries have been using columbaria for decades and didn’t really move into cremation gardens until the past few years. There were cemeteries on the forefront of cremation that constructed cremation gardens years ago, but others came along to it more slowly. A good majority of cemeteries are installing them now because they need to in order to keep up with the market change.

We’ve observed that families still have their own individual ideas of how they want to be interred, so some of our garden designs are combinations of lawn burial, estates, and cremation gardens. This allows family members to select the option that best suits their desires while still being close to other family members who have chosen a different option for interment. Valley of The Sun Cemetery in Chanlder, Arizona (top photo, above) is a great example of this type of design. It has lawn burial, estates, and a variety of cremation options. Valley of the Sun has been very successful and has been expanded four times since its initial construction in 2005.

The commital pavilion at Historic Union Cemetery in Bakersfield, California (bottom photo, above) is a good example of creativity in adding cremation to the cemetery. Union had a former maintenance yard and decided that it could be cleaned up and developed into something more beneficial. We designed a committal pavilion which uses columbaria as the columns supporting the roof structure. This facility is used for services for the individuals being interred in the columbaria as well as for the surrounding burial areas. Union has even held community events in the pavilion. It has become a multi-use facility for them, helping them make better connections to the community.

—Dan Cable, EDA Land Planning

photo: Dan Katz of LA

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Traditional Interment in a Modern WayOne of the biggest reasons cremated remains are abandoned, scattered, or forgotten about by family members or loved ones is the indecision with what to do with the cremated remains. Many don’t want to scatter because there is no actual memorial. Some may not want to pay for a premium columbarium niche. Cremated remains displayed in an urn at home can be lost over time and forgotten about.

Families who have cremated loved ones need to be educated on the different options available for final placement of the cremated remains. Many families may feel their only option is to take the cremated remains home with them. But what happens to the cremated remains in the future when something happens to whoever is responsible for them?

A solution for these problems has been developed by Eickhof Columbaria called the Ossuarium™—a traditional above-ground columbarium with niches and an ossuary incorporating an underground vault for the placement of Eickhof ’s new Satin Urns™.

This option has nearly 900 memorial possibilities with the capacity of the ossuary vault underground able to accommodate more than 850 Satin Urns and up to 19 niches above ground in the obelisk monument. That number of inurnment possibilities for cemeteries, religious institutions, retirement communities, universities, and funeral homes could give them the boost they need for decades to come.

“We were in our sales room talking about an ossuary one day and someone said, ‘Hey, we should make our obelisk into an ossuary.’ And it went from there,” Eickhof President and CEO Paul Eickhof said. “The simplicity makes it unique. What else makes it unique is that the obelisk shape is an iconic symbol recognized for centuries worldwide. It’s a much more marketable idea and it’s the whole coincidence that the obelisk, seen in cemeteries worldwide, lends itself perfectly to the Ossuarium concept. It offers tradition and beauty while continuing the same idea in a modern way.”

The name “Ossuarium” was a process to come up with. “The creative flow came up with the Ossuarium name,” Eickhof explained. “I think it happens in all businesses with innovative ideas. We are the cutting edge here and we have been for a long time. I had nothing to do with the name or idea of the Ossuarium. Our creative team of Brent Thorson and Stephen Noyes came up with the idea.

Eickhof said of the name, “It took me a while to get used to Ossuarium. It has a nice sound to it and it makes sense. I bet it’s a term that catches hold in the industry for any columbarium that has an ossuary in it, anything that combines columbarium niches with a vault underground.”

With the large number of inurnment options, the Ossuarium not only benefits families looking for an affordable option to memorialize their loved ones, but also to memorial professionals who are looking for new and innovative ways to keep up with today’s industry.

Today, funeral homes are storing far too many cremated remains for those who do not make a decision for final placement. Cemeteries are looking for new ways to meet today’s demands of cremation memorialization. Universities are looking for new ways to keep alumni connected. The Ossuarium is a new, economical alternative to scattering and targets those who don’t know quite what to do with the cremated remains of a family member. This new option for cremation allows people to have a dignified grave-side service and memorialize their loved ones in a respectable way.

Having another cremation option like the Ossuarium will hopefully help people to see that it is still worth putting their family member in a final resting place.

—Derek Martin, Eickhof Columbaria

Above: An Eickhof Satin Urn dropping into the Ossuarium’s below ground vault.


significant others. People like opportunities like that. And, because there are only a few spaces, it becomes urgent and people are more interested.

We’re offering scattering out of an airplane. Where we might have lost money by not having the family come back to the cem-etery, we’re offering them a service, letting them know there are other ways to scatter besides doing it all on your own.

It’s very important to partner with funeral homes, especially when you’re not a combo. You have to have an advocate out there. The family they’re meeting with on the funeral home side may or may not buy in the cemetery, but they may have a relative who will. We keep saying, “In our business, it’s not about the family you’re serving today. It’s about all their friends and relatives that you should be thinking about serving tomorrow.”

When you do a tour, it’s not always about the person who died. It’s about showing the family the possibilities. If you’re not taking them on a tour, you’re doing that family an injustice. More people will make a decision when they see how beautiful your cremation waterfall is in person. They can’t visualize it on their own.

If you say to a family, “Were you thinking of being buried in the cemetery?” they’ll say, “No, that’s why we chose cremation.” Instead, you can say, “Take a quick ride with me, let me show you something you might be interested in. We’ve developed things specifically for families like you,” They won’t refuse, they’ll follow you because they don’t do this every day. They don’t know what they don’t know.

We’re developing a very specific cremation tour, not showing our gardens that are all burials, but taking them to key cremation places. “Have you ever heard of a cremation boulder? This is what it looks like. We have areas where we can place it,” and then taking them to show them where the areas are.

Nobody wants to be sold and nobody wants to be pushed into something they’re not interested in. But they will buy when they see value and they see something they like. But they’re never going to know that if you don’t take them on a tour and show it to them. C

Elisa Krcilek is VP of Sales and Marketing at Mountain View Funeral Home, Cemetery and Crematory in Mesa, Arizona. Elisa has been a licensed funeral director and embalmer for 25 years, is a certified cremationist, and is licensed to sell pre-need life insurance and cemetery real estate. Prior to joining the Mountain View team she was the Market Manager over Pre-Planning Advisors for Dignity Memorial in Phoenix. She was Director

of Cremation Development for Stewart Enterprises until they sold to SCI. Elisa spent seven years as the District Manager of the West for Matthews Intl. bronze division. Her career started in Illinois in 1990 working for the Cremation Society of Illinois, where she was the VP of Sales & Marketing until relocating to Arizona.



generational attitude, they seek memorials that are original and unique.

Keeping Generation X and cremation in mind, it is safe to say that advertising memorials is evolving from showing traditional catalog products to showcasing a gallery of versatile and creative work that sparks ideas.

There are plenty of new “cremorial” trends on the market right now. Those trends include:

Cremation BasesEnvision a traditional monument with a vessel cut into the vase underneath the tablet. These bases are subtle and keep the cremated remains protected.

Cremation MarkersMuch like a cremation base, these markers are made of two pieces of granite: the thicker granite vessel and the thinner granite lid. These markers may be installed flush with the ground or beveled.

QR CodesMany families choose to tell their loved one’s story “in living color.” QR codes are added to cremation memorials and traditional memorials alike to further allow a visitor to learn more about an individual and the life he or she lived.

Cremation BenchesCremation benches have been on the market for quite some time. However, they come in countless shapes and styles.

As I mentioned earlier, the average customer will soon be a member of Generation X. If we are to keep the cemetery tradition alive for generations to come, we will be forced to keep that tradition fresh and interesting for Generation X. This means including commemorative art gardens that celebrate the uniqueness of life through interesting and unique memorials. C

Alison Raymer is the co-owner and CEO of Emerson Monument Company, Northwest Arkansas’ oldest, largest, and fastest growing monument retailer and supplier. A graduate of John Brown University with a Masters of Business Administration, she has experience in both accounting and management. As the 2016 President Elect of the Monument Builders of North America, she brings vigor and excitement to the permanent memorial

industry. For additional information, visit her company’s website at www.emersonmonument.com or contact her at [email protected].

Keeping the Cemetery Tradition Alive for Generations to Come By Alison Raymer

For centuries, mankind has identified the need for permanent memorialization. And, although there is a rise in the number of cremations performed each year, the

need to permanently memorialize a loved one has not declined. Instead, it has marked an exciting time for monument builders, as families now request memorials that are more versatile in how they are used and also more versatile in where they are used.

Many families who have chosen cremation select traditional memorials and prefer to bury their loved one’s ashes in a cemetery plot. Others may also opt for a cemetery plot but prefer a memorial that actually houses the ashes above ground. As an industry we are also seeing a large increase in families who choose to erect memorial benches within the cemetery or in another public place for all to use and enjoy in their loved one’s honor. As a permanent memorialist, it is my goal, as well as that of the industry, to provide a product that meets the needs of the family while also keeping the permanence of the memorial in mind.

The most important thing to ask when a family comes in requesting a cremation memorial is what the desire truly is. Does the family ultimately desire to keep the cremated remains above ground and in a vessel that presents as a traditional urn? Or does the family desire to keep the ashes enclosed in a niche-type structure where they are not as easily “seen” by the public? Once these questions have been answered, the memorialist may then begin learning about the deceased and gaining an idea of how the creative elements of the stone should be designed. Cremation hasn’t impacted the creative process behind designing a monument—rather, it has simply added another element for design to consider.

Perhaps the most common statement I hear is, “Well, I am going to be cremated and I won’t need a stone.”

Yes, it is true that cremated remains may be permanently stored or scattered in a number of places. However, as the survivors continue to live and mourn, they find that having a place to go remember and reflect is instrumental in their healing process. Because of this change in the point of time in which the need for the memorial is recognized by the family, marketing has transitioned from targeting immediate needs to targeting needs that have arisen months after a loss has occurred.

Of course any business, regardless of their product, has to know who their target market is and also who their customer is. Currently the average customer may come from the Baby Boomer generation, but soon our average customer will come from Generation X.

Generation X is unique in that it was raised with an unquenchable spirit of individuality. And, because of that

CANA reached out to fellow FAMIC-Member Association Monument Builders of North America for their input on cremation memorialization in their industry. We thank Alison Raymer and Don Calhoun for adding their opinions to the mix.


The cemetery trend is to use a single grave lot for multiple cremations. According to Don, this limits the size for monument memorializations. “Cemeteries wrestle with how to proceed, and most inter two cremations in one lot, while some inter four,” he says. “The memorialization is limited by the size of the lot, but also by the regulations governing that particular cemetery.”

Earth burials are declining and cemeteries can’t survive without trust funds. “The value of the cemetery was historical. It was tied to family and notions of sacred ground. Society still wants to remember that people meant something, but cremation is not necessarily bound to that sacred ground.”

Don cites historic Lakewood in Minnesota as one of the most progressive and successful at maintaining the viability of their cemetery. “They spent an enormous amount on their cremation space. The cemetery is modeled it after the French concept of a park. It’s a place for everything from weddings to bike runs, etc. so it’s not associated with the ‘heebie jeebie’ death thing.”

In terms of offering options, Don thinks potential cremation memorialization trends are unlimited—the only question is what the market will bear. However, monument designs need to be more creative to meed the demand and he doesn’t feel the industry is marketing itself well. “People want to remember, but we have to think outside the cemetery. Sacred ground is still a viable idea, but I’m not sure society recognizes that. The old trend has morphed. The traditional way of approaching death is not palatable or approachable for people any more.”

Don points out that during the earlier years of cremation, the industry focused on placing the cremated remains inside the memorial. But he is confident the next wave is not limited to placing remains inside the memorial. “Death denial is a trend in our society and a trend in cremation. People still want to be remembered, but memorialization can take the form of a bench in a park or a golf course. It can be a fire ring at the family cabin or home—it’s not necessarily confined to the cemetery,” he says.

“I believe memorialization going to morph into all different forms,” adds Don. “My brother was a college professor, and he is memorialized in several locations. There are two memorials at the college, one at his cabin, and his siblings each have something to remember him by. I think the future is related to memorials that are permanent but mobile. ” C

Don Calhoun is currently President of Murphy Granite Carving, Inc., Board Member of FAMIC (Funeral and Memorial Information Council), and Past-President of Monument Builders of North America. Don is also a Certified Memorialist, author and speaker.

Cremation Memorialization: The Trends Are Unlimited A Conversation with Don Calhoun

This memorial is for a traditional burial lot. The cremation urns are placed under the bench seat in the granite pedestal.

His father started in the industry during WWII, and Don Raymer has been in the business his whole life. In that time, he’s seen a lot of change—a change

that he notes is increasing exponentially. “Every five years the business changes more than it did in the 20 years before that,” he observes.

Much of the change is driven by the growth of cremation. “Cremation is accelerating across the country and midwest cremation trends are not lagging,” Don says. “We’re not seeing the high percentages that they have in the west coast or Canada, but cremation is very aggressive in the midwest.”

Cremation has affected memorialization trends both inside and outside the cemetery. “A large portion of cremations are not memorialized in traditional terms. Only about 19% of cremations are interred in a cemetery,” he says. “That means that 81% are not. They’re in a closet, they’re scattered at the lake, on a mountaintop.”

This backyard memory fire ring is granite with stainless steel. Each panel is engraved with memorial images of life.

2015 Cremationist Article (2)

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