Designing a Roadmap for the Business of Cremation

In 1980, my brother and I were joining my father in our family traditional funeral business in South Minneapolis. Like many funeral home families, we lived in the apartment upstairs. upstairs. 

We were a small funeral home in comparison to the competition in our city. The first time we even served more than 100 families a year was in 1976. The cremation rate in the early 80s was under 6% of all deaths. 

In Minnesota, we did not have anyone to learn from or copy what they did. Knowing we needed to meet people who were in this type of business, we joined CANA, where we not only learned about some of the processes itself but were able to meet a lot of people involved in the business. 

East Coast

Every year in January, my brother Mark and I would meet up with Jerry Sullivan (CANA Past President and president and owner of the Cremation Society of Illinois who died in February) in a different area of the country where there were more cremations taking place than in our own market area. We went to the west and east coasts, where the cremation rate was higher than ours to learn what they were doing there. 

When we arrived in Florida, we went to National Cremation Society to meet up with Les Dyer, a CANA past president. Les introduced us to the manager of the location and explained how they served families. This was just after the National Cremation Society was purchased by Service Corporation International. 

West Coast

When we went to California, we visited the Telophase Society of Southern California. Before going, we had several conservations with Tom Weber, the founder of Telophase. Tom was very open with us, offering to help with any questions that we had about how he started the business and the difficulty he had when his own father had died, including the problems he ran into getting his father cremated. It was interesting to hear Tom's stories about fighting traditional funeral homes and getting licenses for his business when he was first starting. Some of the ideas Tom shared with us are still in use today. 

Heading up the California coast, we toured Neptune Society of Northern California in San Francisco. It was owned and operated at the time by Richard Johngorden. The interesting concept that Richard had was to provide a boat that families could travel on to scatter the ashes in the ocean. State regulators required him to go three miles off shore to scatter. Although he had a large business, Richard did not offer any extra items for sale to these families. There were no register books or cards or anything to help with a service. 

The one thing we had that the businesses we visited did not was a chapel for services. The people we visited with did not like the idea of working out of a funeral home. They all had store fronts with only offices. 

Homegrown Growth

In 1982, we installed our first crematory in our chapel. Being the first to install a crematory in the city was no problem at the time. However, shortly after we put ours in, the city changed the ordinance to restrict crematory installation to either cemetery or industrial locations. 

Over the years we experienced steady growth. When we sold the business to Foundation Partners in June of 2017, we had grown to five locations, all with chapels to serve families. We had crematories at three facilities, with one remote location for our overload cases, and a total of eight retorts for us to use. 

In those forty years, we grew the business to 5,500 families served a year. Our growth was consistent year-over-year, with a large prearrangement base.

This would not have been as successful as it was without a great group of people working with us. Also a lot of advertising in Minnesota. The goal was to have Cremation Society of
Minnesota be the name people thought of when choosing cremation.

CANA Past President and cremation pioneer Kevin Waterston shares a look back at the development of his ground-breaking cremation business. The 150th anniversary of modern cremation is a chance for all of us to reflect on where we've come from and where we're headed. You're invited to share your own reflections and you might see your story in a CANA publication!

Looking for a trip with innovative ideas and inspirational colleagues? CANA's 108th Annual Cremation Innovation Convention heads to Minneapolis this August 12-14, 2026, welcoming cremation professionals from across the continent and hosting inspiring speakers, innovative suppliers — and even a tour of local facilities! See what we have planned and register today for CANA's 108th Convention. 

This post originally featured in Volume 62, Issue 1 of The Cremationist, CANA's members-only magazine. Not a member yet? Your firm can become a CANA member for just $539 to access all that CANA has to offer. Learn more and join today!

Kevin Waterston is a lifelong resident of Minneapolis, Minnesota. He attended the University of Minnesota Department of Mortuary Science and lived above the family funeral home until he was 21 years old. Along with his brother, Mark, he founded the Cremation Society of Minnesota in the early 80s, which they sold to Foundation Partners Group in June of 2017. Kevin is a past president of CANA. He currently serves on the advisory board of Worsham College of Mortuary Science in Chicago. Kevin is also on the Community Advisory Board of Foundation Partners Group. 

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