News Shorts

Jeff Crownover of Mountain Home, Arkansas has been in the funeral and cemetery industry since 1987. He has an extensive background in the areas of family service, pre-need funeral and cemetery arrangements, private estate and community mausoleum design as well as funeral home and cemetery management. Jeff and his wife Lori have five grown children. They are members of Twin Lakes Baptist Church. Jeff has been elevated to the Fellowship Degree with the Loyal Order of The Moose, and is a past Governor and past District President.

Since 1982, Frigid Fluid has been leading the way with premium embalming fluids and products to service the funeral and cemetery industry.

Jeff would like to invite you to try their superior products.

If you would like further information, please access their website at www.frigidfluidco.com. And click on embalming fluids to find out index ratings and primary uses for each fluid.

Jeff is very much looking forward to meeting his customers in Arkansas and Missouri. You can call him at 1-870-321-1208 or e-mail him at jcrownover@frigidfluidco.com.

Walker Conducts Education Seminars

Tim Walker, Director of Dealer Development and Sales for Doric Products, Inc. recently conducted a number of funeral service workshops. In conjunction with the Kansas Funeral Directors Association (KFDA), Tim was joined by Dave Hazelett, President of Astral Casket (Lynn, IN), to lead continuing education workshops. The focus of the presentation was Funeral Service Trends and Challenges: 2010 and Beyond. Tim and Dave discussed caskets and vaults as well as green burials, cremation and the influence of the third party vendors. The use of technology in the funeral service industry, a continuously evolving field, was also a part of the presentation. KFDA welcomed over 200 funeral directors to their four regional meetings held in Mayetta, Hays, Dodge City and Wichita. Jim Wiens, President of Doric Concrete Vaults, Inc., (Newton, KS) was pleased to support the KFDA by underwriting the workshops.

Tims rich history in the funeral industry provides him with a unique perspective and ability to understand a wide-range of audiences. He began as a licensed funeral director and embalmer in the State of Florida. After more than twenty years, Tim moved on to serve as a regional vice president for a major vault company where he developed skills and insight into the manufacturing and marketing of burial vaults.

Trappist Caskets

By Trappist Monastery of

New Melleray Abbey in eastern Iowa

Theirs is an unconventional business model with an improbable workforce and a boss of the highest order. Blend these distinctions with a deep-rooted work ethic and the result is a product that many regard as, quite literally, a blessing.

Trappist Caskets is the ten-year old enterprise of the Trappist monastery of new Melleray Abbey in eastern Iowa. At this monk-owned and operated company, handcrafted caskets, made of solid wood harvested from the Abbeys 1,200-acre sustainable forest, are prayerfully constructed and shipped to every state in the U.S.

The monks approach to doing business is founded on their belief that crafting caskets is a corporal work of mercy. Surrounded by the peaceful environment of the monastery, monks, along with hired lay workers, craft caskets and cremation urns as an expression of their life of prayer and their belief that death is the final step along the path to God.

Each year, demand has grown as more people learn of these simple, authentic caskets. With 10 years of consistent growth, we now have a wholesale program in place, enabling cemeteries and funeral homes throughout the country to offer Trappist Caskets to the families they serve, comments Sam Mulgrew, manager of Trappist Caskets.

Funeral service providers who offer the Trappist Caskets line find that families are drawn to the caskets on several levels. First is the outward difference. The quality, as well as the simple, unique design, distinguishes them from assembly-line products. Ill put their workmanship up against anyones, states Dan Ciha of Gay & Ciha Funeral & Cremation Services in Iowa City, Iowa, who admits that he is passionate about the product. the craftsmanship is so exceptional that we have actually had several clients purchase them pre-need and use them as coffee tables.

Everything is genuine in these solid-wood caskets, finished with beeswax and upholstered by hand. Each requires 18-19 hours of work and reflects the monks regard for authentic craftsmanship and the time-honored way of doing things, notes Mulgrew. John McHugh, director of the Francis J. Collins Funeral Home in Silver Spring, Maryland, notes that, Others dont make caskets to look like this.

Beyond the quality, families are intrigued and comforted by the sacramental component at the heart of each casket. Detached from the hectic world, these men of God impart the sanctity of a life of prayer into their manual labor. The result is a casket of the purest quality. Each casket and urn is blessed and each person buried in a Trappist Casket is remembered in a memorial mass offered by the monks. As a tangible symbol, a keepsake cross recessed in the casket or urn is given to the family. In crafting these sacred vessels the monks hope to bring a sense of peace to the families they serve. The monks are proud of what they are doing and honored to be sharing in a familys grief, observes Ciha.

Although the green movement seems a contemporary concept, the New Melleray Abbey has practiced responsible stewardship for 160 years. Monks craft each casket from lumber harvested from their award-winning forest which is painstakingly managed to be a diverse and sustainable eco-system. For each tree used, a replacement is planted in its stead, as a living memorial to the deceased.

Funeral service providers recognize the benefits of making Trappist Caskets as an option for the families they serve. While the audience for Trappist Caskets originally consisted of priests and other religious leaders, now the demand is greater, beyond the boundaries of religious affiliations. I have seen a growing awareness of Trappist Caskets from the families I serve, comments McHugh. Although he began displaying them in his selection room at the beginning of the year, hes pleased by the somewhat unexpected sales volume and attributes the success to three features. I believe people are drawn by the reasonable price, simple design and the meaningful way in which the products are made.

Dan DeVries, vice president of Halligan, McCabe, DeVries Funeral Home in Davenport, Iowa, finds that not only the product but also the service set Trappist Caskets apart. One Christmas I needed a quick delivery and Sam (Mulgrew) personally met me at the warehouse to make certain I could get exactly what I needed, recalls DeVries. Ciha agrees. Support is absolutely incredible, beyond what is expected.

We provide the funeral industry with a unique product, one which their competitors likely dont have, notes Mulgrew. There is also a residual benefit. Funeral directors who carry our line find that families have an immediate trust in them because of the connection to the monks.

Information about Trappist Caskets is available at 888-433-6934. All models are kept in stock, so orders are shipped immediately, usually arriving in one to two business days.

Check out their website: www.trappistcaskets.com

Doric Dealers Participate in Ribbon-Cutting Ceremony

Doric Products Inc., a leading name in the lined concrete burial vault industry and manufacturer of Classic Metal air-seal vaults, welcomed Doric Dealers from across the country last week (February). Dealers toured the newest building addition to Doric facilities, a 45,000 sq. ft. warehouse and office building , and participated in a ribbon-cutting.

A number of factors contributed to the Doric Board of Directors decision to go forward with the new building. One major factor was the consistent growth patterns of our Doric network of licensees during the past five years. New Doric dealers continue to join our family and this growth, of course, requires us to increase our production. The second fact is the Research and Development Department (R&D).

The Research and Development Department previously shared a building with another unit and did not have the space needed for growth. The new facility allowed Doric to reallocate current spaces and give the Research and Development Department sole use of their building. The Doric Board also approved the purchase of two large pieces of equipment for R&D. Both machines were recently installed and training of staff members has been completed. This is an important step in meeting the future needs of our customers.

A small portion of the new building is being used for office and meeting room space. The location of the new offices promotes smooth workflow among office staff and the other departments. Doric took this opportunity to install state-of-the-art wiring for telephones and computer technologies. Based on dealer feedback, a marketing prototype area was also included. Dealers cans see the variety of options available for showroom setups. They can adjust display pieces based on the needs of customers and actually see the design before they decide to purchase.

The Doric Board of Directors is pleased with the many advancements being made as a result of the new building.

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