PRESIDENTS MESSAGES WELCOME NEW MEMBERS 1 OCAPROVIDING EDUCATION JOURNAL AND SUPPORT TO ALL OHIO CEMETERIES JANUARY 2016 VOLUME 6 ISSUE 1 CALENDAR OF EVENTS OHIO TOWNSHIP ASSN. WINTER CONFERENCE JANUARY 28-29, 2016 COLUMBUS OH ANNUAL AWARDS DINNER IN THIS ISSUE FEBURARY, 20, 2016 HOLIDAY INN PRESIDENTS MESSAGES. P.1 OCA SPRING WORTHINGTON, OH CONF. AGENDA ...... P.11 SUPPLIER SPOTLIGHT .....P.5 SPRING CONFERENCE WELCOME MARCH 15-16, 2016 CEMETERY SPOTLIGHT ....P.6 NEW MEMBERS .......P.18 EMBASSY SUITES COLUMBUS, OH ANNUAL CONVENTION - MESSAGE FROM. AUGUST 1, 2, 3 2016 ATWOOD LAKE RESORT SHERRODSVILLE, OH OCA OUTGOING PRESIDENT FALL MAINTENANCE RUFUS SLADE SEMINAR – OCTOBER 6, 2016 (THURSDAY) Another year has come and gone and The OCA Membership will be in FOREST HILL CEMETERY as we say goodbye to 2015 and hello good hands with Scott, for he, as well PIQUA, OH to 2016, I also must say good bye as the rest of the Board of Directors, as your OCA President and hello to will continue to grow our association your new OCA President Mr. Scott and professionally serve the member- Harmon. I will remain on the Board ship with the dignity and respect it of Directors and involved in various deserves. committees. (continued on page 2) January 2016 | Volume 6 | Issue 1 1 PRESIDENTS MESSAGE (continued from page 1) MESSAGE FROM. OCA OUTGOING PRESIDENT RUFUS SLADE We must also say good bye to Mr. Mark Funke as he will I would like to take this opportunity to thank all the be stepping down from the Board of Directors in 2016. members who have offered their assistance to the OCA Mark has faithfully served on the Board of Directors over the past year and to the membership for giving since January of 2011 and his knowledge and wisdom me the opportunity to serve as President. I would will certainly be missed. also like to wish everyone a happy and prosperous New Year and good luck with all of your New Year endeavors. Rufus Slade January 2016 | Volume 6 | Issue 1 2 PRESIDENTS MESSAGE MESSAGE FROM. OCA INCOMING PRESIDENT SCOTT HARMON My name is Scott Harmon; I will be your OCA Presi- Dispute Resolution Commission. This is a four year dent for 2016. I want to first thank Rufus Slade for his term ending in 2019. time and leadership as the outgoing OCA President. My wife Carolyn and I have been married for 17 Rufus will still be active on the OCA board, in which years. We have two boys- Reece (15) & Blake (11). I he serves on various committees. have been a Dover youth football and baseball coach I’ll begin with a little background on myself. I since 2006. graduated from Dover High School in 1993. After high I’m looking forward to the challenges and school, I attended Heidelberg University for four years opportunities that the OCA will face in 2016. As graduating with a BS in Business Administration and always, if you have any concerns or ideas to better the a minor in Public Administration. My career didn’t OCA please let me or any board member know. Let’s start within the cemetery industry. I worked as a get ready for a great year and hope to see everyone at shipping and receiving supervisor for 3 years at a metal our upcoming events. fabrication shop in Canton, OH. From there I worked Scott Harmon as a production supervisor for the Wayne Dalton OCA President- 2016 Corporation until being hired as the Superintendent of Cemeteries for the City of Dover. I’ve been a member of the OCA for 9 years. I was just recently appointed by Governor Kasich as a commissioner for the Ohio January 2016 | Volume 6 | Issue 1 3 Remembering Remembering our Associate and Friend John R. (Bob) Moses 1945 - 2015 Bob Moses, 70, of Aurora, OH, he was called home to be with the Lord on Saturday, 5 December 2015, while at the Cleveland Clinic following a brief illness. Born in Covington, Kentucky January 24, 1945 to John and Mary Moses, Bob grew up in the Covington area and graduated from Holmes High School. He then joined the U.S. Army, graduated with honors from the Noncommissioned Officer Academy, and rose to the rank of Sergeant E-5 before his honorable discharge in 1966. Bob began his illustrious vocation in the death care industry as a pre-need sales counselor in Erlanger, Kentucky in 1970. As a marketing pioneer in the industry, he opened the first cemetery / funeral home combinations in Kentucky, Tennessee, and Ohio. He owned a cemetery in Winchester, Kentucky and a newspaper. After leaving Kentucky, he held executive positions with both SCI and ECI while speaking for the National Speakers Association and was the first cemeterian inducted into the National Speakers Association. He then formed Lord & Moses L.L.C. in 2003 which became the parent company for Crown Hill Burial Park and Selby Funeral Home located in Vienna, OH along with Evergreen Memory Gardens in Lexington, KY. Additionally, he authored and self-published the book Cremation and the Christian and continuing in his passion of reading and studying the Bible, which led to a self-distributed Bible study series titled “Searching the Scriptures” as a written ministry over 30 years ago. Some of the gems that he treasured during his life were: singing barbershop with the Wayneaires Barbershop Chorus in Wooster, Ohio; singing professionally for three years with the Generation Gap Barbershop Quartet; telling jokes and short stories of which he was a master; traveling abroad; reading, studying and mentoring others in the Word of God. Bob was a former board member of the Ohio Cemetery Association and held the office of president in 2013. Bob leaves behind his loving wife, Barbara, of 27 years; a daughter, Paula Moses, Ph.D. of Pennsylvania; a son, John R. Moses, Jr. of Texas; and a step-daughter, Jennifer Koelewyn of Ohio. Family services were held on Friday, December 11, 2016 at the Crown Hill Chapel Mausoleum in Vienna, OH. January 2016 | Volume 6 | Issue 1 4 January 2016 | Volume 6 | Issue 1 E & L CEMETERY SERVICES E&L Cemetery Services covers all Ohio Counties, offering retail 171 N. Hamilton Road products and services to the general public while assisting Suite M cemeteries and funeral homes with wholesale options to increase Columbus, OH 43213 their bottom line. 866-599-6279 Specializing in memorials, columbaria, and mausolea sales and installations as well repair and restoration, E&L has the technical experience to offer you professional consultation or on-site, hands-on solutions. · Restoration Subsiderary of E&L MEMORIAL SETTERS · Columbariums (wholesale/retail) OF AMERICA www.memorialsetters.com · Mausoleums (wholesale/retail) · Memorials /Headstone (wholesale/retail) · Foundations Subsiderary of E&L · Re-sealing of memorials (at the joint) COLUMBUS MEMORIALS www.columbusmemorials.com · Weatherproofing/sealing of granite · Cleaning · Grave Blankets · Gravegrooming Subsiderary of E&L PASSING CARE www.passingcare.com 5 CEMETERY SPOTLIGHT EAST LAWN CEMETERY MARIETTA, OHIO Valley Cemetery, the original section, has graves there that date back to the early 1800s. Ernie Thode, former director of Washington County’s Local History and Genealogy Library, said a book of readings of East In the early 1960s the newer section of the Lawn Memorial Park and Valley Cemetery by local cemetery, East Lawn Memorial Park, was established. historian and author Wes Cochran indicates the old- East Lawn is a flush bronze only section and is similar est grave in Valley Cemetery belongs to 11-month-old to other memorial park cemeteries started around Soloman Harness, son of Granville and Jane (Comp- that time. Remembrance Chapel Mausoleum was ton) Harness. The child died on June 16, 1834. constructed in the late 1970s for both full casket Although written records date the earliest burials crypts and cremation niches. Two other garden in Valley Cemetery at nearly 180 years ago, some buildings, Hope and Love, were built in the mid 1990s unmarked graves there could be several years older. and early 2000s. East Lawn Memorial Park director Tony McDaniel In 2001 the cemeteries were transferred to said Valley Cemetery contains several unusual monu- American Cemetery Services LLP from The Loewen ments. “There are also three above-ground sandstone Group along with 13 other Ohio cemeteries. American sarcophagi,” he said. Cemetery Services LLP is an Ohio partnership between Shown above are three sarcophagi dated around brothers Jeff, Kirk and Alex Roberts. the turn of the 20th century. They are among some The most recent addition to the cemetery was of the unique monuments marking grave sites in the the construction of Roberts Funeral Home in August Valley Cemetery section of 2014. Roberts Funeral Homes Inc. operates 4 Many of the names found in Cochran’s book funeral homes located on cemeteries and started the seemed to be old settlers of the area who would most first cemetery funeral home location in 1986 at their likely have been buried in the Valley Cemetery. Wooster, OH location. Also noted are that some of the older stone monuments in Valley Cemetery are so weathered that Article submitted by: Kirk D. Roberts the names and dates of the deceased are no longer legible. January 2016 | Volume 6 | Issue 1 6 UPCOMING EVENTS 2016 UPCOMING EVENTS – 2016 AWARDS DINNER PROGRAM CHAIR - KIRK ROBERTS SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 20, 2016 COMMITTEE SCOTT HARMON, PATRICK EBRIGHT JAN BURROWES SPRING CONFERENCE (MARCH) TUESDAY, WEDNESDAY MARCH 15, 16, 2016 LOCATION: EMBASSY SUITE CORPORATE EXCH. COLUMBUS PROGRAM CHAIR – SCOTT HARMON CO CHAIR – MARILYN BRANDT ANNUAL CONVENTION MONDAY-TUESDAY-WEDNESDAY AUGUST 1-2-3 ATWOOD LAKE LODGE PROGRAM CHAIR – SCOTT HARMON FIELD DAY-DOVER BURIAL PARK COMMITTEE: MARILYN BRANDT, KIRK ROBERTS, PATRICK EBRIGHT, JAN BURROWES Golf: SCOTT HARMON FALL MAINTENANCE- PIQUA PROGRAM CHAIRS – XXX, JIM ROTH (HOST) FOREST HILL CEMETERY - PIQUA THURSDAY, OCTOBER 6, 2016 //2015 Page 2 of 2 January 2016 | Volume 6 | Issue 1 7 CONTINUING EDUCATION SEMINAR CONTINUING EDUCATION Woodland Cemetery will be hosting a Continuing Education seminar Thursday February 4th, 2016 3pm -7pm, seminar to start at 3:30.