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Meet Your Board Member
A Q&A with ICFA Board Member
Richard F. Cody, CCE
President
Resthaven Memorial Gardens
Frederick, Maryland
www.resthavencemetery.com
Why did you choose to work in the cemetery and funeral service industry?
Although I am a second-generation cemeterian, I did not plan on being in my father's business. At the time I was growing up, he owned or had interest in many cemeteries scattered across Pennsylvania, and one in Mobile, Alabama.
After graduating from the University of Virginia, and while serving in the Army, I was offered a position with RCA Records in New York City. This position would have involved working with many recording artists, a type of in-house public relations. At the same time my father called me, saying he needed my help for about six months. When I told him about my job offer, he asked if I could delay accepting it to help him out. I consulted with my RCA contact, who assured me the position would be there when I was ready.
I always had an interest in sales. While in secondary school, I was the advertising manager of our school newspaper. My main job was to go into the town of Princeton, New Jersey, and sell advertising door-to-door.
While at UVa, I was the business manager of the "Spectator," the college humor magazine. One of my main responsibilities was to sell advertising. My technique was to report to the university a week early and sell the advertising for all eight issues. This accomplished two things. By selling all the issues out before school started, I didn't have to take time away from my studies during the school year. And, by seeing the local merchants before our competitor, the university newspaper, I didn't hear, "Our advertising budget has been used up."
After I was released from active duty with the Army, I went straight to Pittsburgh to work with my father. I learned he had overextended his cemetery operations and was on the verge of losing all his cemeteries to creditors. As I started dealing with the challenges in front of me, I realized I wanted the flexibility of being an independent businessperson rather than working for a large international corporation.
With my father's assistance, we started a brand new cemetery in Cumberland, Maryland, independent of any of my father's other interests in Pennsylvania. I found I could measure success very simply. My greatest incentive to make sales was to actually meet the payroll at the end of the week.
Several years after that, we started and developed cemeteries in Hagerstown, Baltimore County and Frederick, Maryland. Now, Cedar Lawn Memorial Gardens in Hagerstown and Lakeview Memorial Park in Baltimore are owned by SCI, while Sunset Memorial Park in Cumberland is owned by Cornerstone Family Services. Resthaven Memorial Gardens still remains a family-owned cemetery in Frederick, where our son, Skkot, has established "Resthaven Funeral Services, Skkot Cody, P.A."
What is the best experience you've ever had in your job?
There have been so many wonderful experiences, it is hard to pick out only a few to highlight. The main thing I love about this industry is the opportunity to work with so many wonderful people. I have been very grateful over the years, working with the National Association of Cemeteries and the American Cemetery Association (now merged as the ICFA), the Southern Cemetery Association and the Pre-Arrangement Interment Association of America for the many friends I have made and their never-ending willingness to help each other with information and advice.
For example, Mike Shipley took a leave of absence from his family business in Florida to come up to Frederick for two years to use his prodigious sales skills to help our sales and marketing efforts when the sales manager left suddenly. His efforts helped get us over the hump until we could hire and train a replacement. I will always be grateful to Mike and his wife, Marie, for their help and friendship over the years.
I enjoy meeting the property owners who are particularly appreciative of our efforts to keep the gardens beautifully maintained.
I like the challenge of public relations, letting people know about the services we are proud to provide.
One of the most outstanding experiences I have had was the dedication of our second Veteran's Garden. I had the opportunity to cooperate with the American Battle Monuments Commission to design a large bronze plaque listing all the overseas military cemeteries of World War I and World War II, the country in which each cemetery is located and the number of known and unknown buried in each during both World Wars.
There is an 8th Air Force plaque which recites the history of "The Mighty Eight" during World War II; a plaque commemorating the accomplishments of the 508th Parachute Infantry Division, part of the 82nd Airborne Division that dropped paratroops in Normandy on D-Day; and the 29th Infantry Division plaque which recounts the official history of the division in World War II.
The most marvelous part of this was that I invited each of the countries to send a representative to the dedication of the Veterans Garden of Valor. Each one of the countries sent a high-ranking military attache to attend and participate in the dedication ceremonies.
What was the most difficult, and what did you learn from it?
That is an easy question. As my first cemetery started from raw land, there was no heritage. The only source of income to pay for construction, office salaries and general overhead was current sales of cemetery lots on a preneed basis to new lot owners.
After working in the office during the day, I would go out at night to help make payroll at the end of the week. That experience taught me never, never to be underfunded when starting a new cemetery. Especially in Maryland, I doubt a new cemetery could even be licensed unless it already had a healthy balance sheet to start out.
What advice would you give to young people just starting out in this industry?
I would advise getting a good liberal arts college education. I would also recommend taking the following college courses: writing, logic, business law, public speaking and public relations.
Having said that, I feel they should read "How to Sell Cemetery Property Before Need," by Harold W. Brown, and "A Cemetery Should Be Forever," by John F. Llewellyn. The Brown book will provide a basic understanding of the benefit to the consumer of prearranging, and the book by Llewellyn will give an overview of the history of the modern cemetery as well as additional information a new cemeterian needs to know.
I would also advise the young man or woman to take a marketing kit, if permitted by local laws and ordinances, and go out into the field. Just as many insurance companies were built on direct marketing, most of today's modern cemeteries began and were built by direct marketing.
I believe that direct marketing is a win-win situation. It allows the cemetery to build at today's construction cost, and it also gives the consumer protection against higher cost in the future.
I will never forget the letter we received from one of our lot owners, who wrote, "When your representative was in our home, we gave him a deposit on the cemetery lots just to get him out of the house. Three months later, when my husband was killed on the turnpike, I could not have gone to the cemetery to pick out lots. The thought that we had done this together was of great comfort to me."
What do you see as the biggest benefits of ICFA membership?
There are several benefits in being an ICFA member. The greatest benefit, as I see it, is that we have a knowledgeable and articulate advocate for our industry. Our industry has been and will continue to be under attack by well-meaning -- and some not well-meaning -- individuals, groups and writers who fail to give an accurate and fair report in their news stories. We need a watchdog for our industry, since these attacks should not go unanswered. If we receive no other benefit from our membership dues, this would be worth it.
For example, I recently attended a meeting of the Maryland Morticians' Board. The members were discussing the basic difference between their cremation bill and the Office of Cemetery Oversight bill. The Mortician's Bill described cremation as "final disposition." The Office of Cemetery Oversight version stated that final disposition does not occur until the cremations are buried or entombed. The ICFA often serves as a clearinghouse of information and expertise on such subjects. In this case, the ICFA helped us substantiate our position that cremation is only a preparation for final memorialization and communicate this view to others.
The ICFA, through its many seminars, trade shows and marketing meetings, affords many opportunities for networking and the exchange of ideas. I believe that if one does not belong to their state and national associations, a cemeterian hurts his or her own cemetery and unfairly burdens fellow cemeterians.
Why did you wish to serve on the ICFA board?
I wanted to give something back to the industry that has been so good to me and my family. As I am just completing my second two-year term as president of the Maryland Free State Cemetery and Funeral Association, I felt I would have the extra time necessary to be an effective ICFA director.
What are your outside interests?
My hobbies are boating, International
Air Pistol, golf and photography. Both my wife, Jill, and I spend a lot of time supporting Rotary Club activities that benefit local and international charities.
If you could "do lunch" with anyone, living or dead, whom whould you choose and why?
I would choose two of my uncles, Robert Union and Alfred Union. Robert was in the 508th Parachute Infantry Regiment, 82nd Airborne Division, and was killed on D-Day, June 6, 1944. He is buried in Normandy Cemetery overlooking Omaha Beach in France. Alfred was in the 8th Air Force, 303rd Bomb Group. His B-17 was shot down in France and he is buried in Brittany Cemetery, St. James, France. I was only 9 years old at the time. I would like the opportunity to talk to them and tell them how very grateful I and their country are for what they did in World War II.
Copyright ICFA 2002
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