By Thomas A. Parmalee

If you wanted to make an action flick about a cremationist, you may be tempted to cast Arnold Schwarzenegger, who after all, was the terminator.

But to give the movie – let’s call it “The Cremator” – a more accurate feel, you’d want to choose someone with the skills, passion and physique for such a role. Someone who is a good person, who can catch all the bad guys and … well … throw them in the cremator. He’d have to be an expert in operating the retort, of course.

The perfect star would be Larry Stuart Jr., the founder and principal of Raven Plume Consulting. Even without welding gloves and a leather apron, he’d still look the part as he towers over virtually everyone else at 6’9”.

Stuart has certified thousands of crematory operators, making an indelible mark on the profession by teaching others how to do their job well – and by shining a spotlight on poor business practices when he sees them.

As a business owner and a trainer with the crematory operations certification programs at both the Cremation Association of North America and the International Cemetery, Cremation and Funeral Association, he’s traveled worldwide delivering his own version of the gospel in crisp khakis and buttoned-up shirts.

His message is simple and clear: If you are going to perform a cremation, you have to do it right.

Getting certified at an ICCFA or CANA program is a great way to take a step in that direction, he said.

“Most people in the United States and in Canada choose cremation as a means of disposition, and they need an expert to help them with that,” he said. “I believe even if you don’t do the cremation itself, you should be that expert – and cremation certification or operator certification is paramount to becoming that expert.”

The Scion of a Cremation Pioneer

As everyone knows, with the “Jr.” being such an essential part of his name, Larry is the son of Larry Stuart Sr., who was a force as an engineer in the cremation world before teaming up with is son — “Junior” — to start Crematory Manufacturing & Service. The elder Stuart recently died, leaving behind a rich legacy.

“It all started when Dad and one of his best friends got together,” Stuart said. “Terry Sousa was the guy, and Dad was a steel engineer – he was not a businessman.”

Although it was the late 1970s and the national cremation rate was still under 10%, the elder Stuart saw an opportunity, and he wanted to capitalize on it.

“I was 14 back in 1978, Stuart said. “And I remember thinking, ‘This is cool.’”

The elder Stuart, already a crackerjack engineer, honed his talents even further and became the operations director at All Crematory Corp. – a position he held with distinction until 1995 when he joined forces with his son to start  Crematory Manufacturing & Service.

The company did extremely well, becoming one of the world’s premier manufacturers of cremators, with installations in 35 countries, including China and the Soviet Union.

While Stuart saw how much his dad loved his work, he never really thought cremation would play such a critical role in his own life journey.

“I was going to go to college,” he said. “And then maybe law school, and I’d make billions of dollars.”

Eventually, however, the elder Stuart decided to start his own company – and he needed help.

“He wanted to do some design improvements, and he said, ‘I’m just going to go out on my own.’ He had a son who ended up not going to law school but entered the business world and he thought, ‘He will help me because I am not a businessperson.’ And there was my brother, David, who was working in sales,” Stuart said. “So, we had a good triangle – it was a triple threat.”

Joining forces with his dad when he needed the help was never a question, Stuart said – although it did take some time for his brother to sign on.

“I was working at a medical equipment company, but it was family owned, and I knew I would have to find something else to go up into higher-level management,” Stuart said. “I was not a family member, and I knew that was never going to happen. So, it just made sense to do this together. Once Dad started talking about it, I never doubted he would do it.”

Father and son started CMS in Rhode Island where they lived, and they capitalized on the elder Stuart’s formidable reputation. It took some time for them to woo Stuart’s brother into the fray, but once he joined, he stayed on for about eight years.

“My brother was making a lot of money at the time at a company that was bought out by AT&T, and in the beginning, we simply could not afford him,” Stuart explained.

In 1996, the company moved “lock, stock and barrel” in Stuart’s words to Tulsa, Oklahoma, where a refractory dealer lived.

“He and Dad were friends, and he had a lot of land, and they struck up a deal,” Stuart said. “There were also some tax benefits for manufacturing in the state.”

For 20 years, the company operated in Oklahoma and was a success, Stuart said.

During his time at CMS and as the founder of his own consulting company, he blazed a trail throughout the world, training thousands of crematory operators, owners and funeral directors on cremation best practices.

Larry Stuart Jr. has trained thousands of funeral professionals about best practices when it comes to cremation.

Looking Back

Although Stuart now has the gift of hindsight and can see what a juggernaut cremation was and is, he told FuneralVision.com that its trajectory was hard to see in the beginning as its growth was so gradual.

“The rate of cremation really did not start going up noticeably until the mid-1980s,” he said. “It started going up 2.5% a year, and it just never didn’t go up – and that is when I knew we would always have a market for our equipment,” he said. “Plus, we had so many service clients from the previous days. We took all those companies and did their maintenance and service. My Dad believed in service. That was what we hung our hats on in the beginning, and it never stopped. We took care of our clients.”

That philosophy is what paved the way for CMS to win business worldwide, Stuart said. “We had installations in Asia, Canada, Mexico and in the Caribbean,” he said. “We were poised to penetrate South America and Europe. Toward the end, I am not even sure how many clients we had, but we were never No. 1. – Matthews always was. We struggled to compete with them, but we held our own and were always in the top three.”

But Stuart’s dad retired in 2008, and after that, life at work changed – and not for the better.

“For eight years, work just was not fun anymore,” Stuart said with sadness, reflecting on how hard that time was. “My brother had left to do his own thing. And it just wasn’t fun, and that is exactly the truth.”

Stuart had only great things to say about his dad, who he worked alongside of for 20 years. “He cared about the customers and the profession as a whole,” he said. “His unstated motto was ‘customer first’ and he was able to translate that into everything he did with the development of the equipment we manufactured and the service and repair vertical of the business. It was his secret sauce.”

Stuart sold the company in 2016 and formed his own consulting company, Cremation Strategies & Consulting, also based in Oklahoma. Stuart has grown to love it there, and other than frequently traveling to Central America, where he likes to vacation, he has no plans to leave.

Powerhouse team: Larry Stuart Jr. joined with his dad, the late Larry Stuart Sr., to become a force in the death-care profession.

The Birth of a Globetrotter

Stuart was always an in-demand speaker and cremation trainer, but once he formed his own consulting company, he kicked up his globetrotting. There was rarely a 48-hour stretch when he was not getting on or getting off a plane.

“I was not a marketing guy other than marketing for my company, but I had a lot of skills in the cremation area,” Stuart said. “And I had done a lot of speaking while at CMS, so I just continued with that. It just kind of flowed naturally into a lot of consulting work and speaking – and people started asking for more.”

It certainly didn’t hurt that Stuart has a commanding presence and a quick wit that rivals any speaker in the death-care profession.

As he continued speaking throughout the world, however, he’d get an array of inquiries that were not necessarily in his wheelhouse of expertise.

“Can you help us do this or that?” he said. “And I was like, ‘I can’t.’ But I started to think that maybe I should partner with some experts in other areas of funeral service.”

That epiphany is what led to forming a second consulting company, Raven Plume, which delivers an array of services far beyond the cremation expertise Stuart felt comfortable delivering on his own.

As to how he picked the name, its website tells the story, noting, “The raven is often associated with death and bad luck. However, its symbolism is complex. As a talking bird, the raven also represents prophecy and insight.”

The explanation continues, “French anthropologist Claude Lévi=Strauss offered the theory that suggests the raven obtained mythic status because it was a mediator animal between life and death.”

As for the word “plume,” which is actually an unfortunate occurrence in the case of a cremation, it is included “not to normalize it, but to remind us of the ever-present risk inherent with the lack of strong policies, procedures, and operational best practices.”

In addition to helping firms improve their cremation processes, the company also assists with human resources best practices, marketing and branding, Stuart said. It’s squarely focused on funeral service.

“I don’t want to expand into other verticals,” he said. “If the younger consultants I work with want to take things to that level, I am happy to do that, but I don’t want to go back to working 100 hours a week. As I get older … I want to slow down.”

More About Raven Plume

Process improvement and enhancing standard operating procedures is definitely Raven Plume’s hallmark, Stuart said.

There are some areas where many firms continue to fall short, which is something Raven Plume can uncover through its audits of crematories – whether they be third-party providers or owned by a funeral home or cemetery.

“Our audits are something we can hang our hat on,” he said. “We call it the Inspect Service. We do an audit of everything: processes and change of custody. We interview employees. We watch how they treat the decedent.”

Most Inspect Service clients use the service to evaluate a contractor.

“It is a CYA thing,” Stuart said. “They trust their crematory, they love the people who work there, but they want to see it in writing – from someone other than themselves. They want to show their clients that they went so far as to do a third-party audit of the crematory.”

While his audit often turns up some problems, it is rare for a funeral home to fire their third-party provider as a result of the audit, Stuart said.

“The most common problems tend to tie in with chain of custody, identification and documentation,” Stuart said. “You can say you do something and actually do it, but if you don’t document it … well, if it is not in writing, it does not exist. We need to implement a tighter chain of custody protocol.”

Unfortunately, when Stuart explains this to some crematory owners and personnel, he gets a reaction that makes him grimace: They think it is too onerous of a process.

“Until I explain what could happen … they think it is too much,” he said. “And unfortunately, when I develop an SOP for someone, some clients … I hate to admit it … they will say they love it, but then they put it on a shelf, and it collects dust. It is human nature to want to do things the easy way. But if you have ever been in a deposition, and the lawyer can find that tiny gap in your procedures that creates doubt, well, your insurance company is going to pay the maximum amount to settle.”

Stuart believes so strongly in carrying out cremations the right way that he conducts all the site inspections himself, even when that means crossing the country on a plane during an electrical storm that lights up the sky like a torch.

“I am that control freak,” he said. “Price wise, the Inspect Service costs $2,500 plus expenses. I spend a day-and-a-half on site. I need full access to interview the staff. I need to interact with the stakeholders and get copies of the documentation in place – your permit to operate, that kind of stuff. I also need to cross reference local laws. While I do not provide legal advice, I do want to make sure everything is compliant. And if they are not in compliance, I will tell them they have to change.”

Both the funeral home and the third-party crematory get a copy of the report, and Stuart has never been asked to “blindly go in” in a surprise inspection scenario, he said.

“And I don’t think I would,” he said. “I am not out to get anyone here – I want the Inspect Service to be a constructive tool to help elevate the profession. The more you know, the better. I don’t care if you spit-shine your place before I show up – I want to see the process. I don’t care how clean your floor is … unless I see cremated remains on it.”

Even finding cremated remains on the floor is usually an “easy fix,” Stuart said.

What is a tougher fix is if the crematory is cremating bodies in a plastic bag if the law requires them to be cremated in an alternative minimum container. Or, if the employees carrying out the cremation simply have not kept up with the times.

“Sometimes, you may need some personnel changes,” Stuart said.

An example would be an employee who insists on repositioning the body in the cremation chamber even if it’s not necessary, Stuart said.

“Some may think it is necessary to hurry and get it done, just because you may need to put an additional 20 minutes on the timer,” he said. “OK, well, if you need to put 20 minutes on to avoid desecrating the decedent, you put 20 minutes on the timer. Any crematory operator who says they are too busy to do that, I need to have a discussion with them. You work and rest, work and rest. You are not constantly doing the cremation.”

Repositioning the body also interrupts the process and adds air to the chamber, which can lead to black smoke coming out of your stack. “That is never good for your lungs or your optics,” he said.

Stuart still operates the first consulting company he started, Cremation Strategies & Service. He developed an SOP framework that is a member benefit for CANA members and is a popular offering. “Notably, the member benefit can be custom designed from top to bottom for a business,” he said.

COVID and Beyond

Since the outbreak of COVID-19, Raven Plume’s human resources offerings have become more popular. The company can also serve as a headhunter for firms struggling to fill a position, Stuart said.

COVID also forced Stuart to slow it down a little.

“If I can say anything about COVID, I did not get on a plane for six months straight, which is a 30-year record for me,” he said. “I took my first trip again in September 2020 to do an in-person certification at the Cincinnati College of Mortuary Science for Jack Lechner, and I haven’t stopped since then. Once I added it up, and I was traveling about 30 weeks in one year, but now it’s about 15 to 20 weeks.”

On top of all the cremation certifications, public speaking and work he does at Raven Plume, he is also an equity adviser for Parting Stone, whose founder, Justin Crowe, recently made headlines when he appeared on the hit television show “Shark Tank.” Stuart has a small equity stake in the company.

“I met Justin at a CANA convention in Fort Lauderdale maybe five years ago or so,” he said. “He knew I was well-versed in the cremation space and wanted to pick my brain.”

It became clear to Stuart early on that what Crowe was offering was amazing. “The whole idea of a different form of cremated remains really appealed to me,” Stuart said. “He said ashes are inconvenient, and I really believe that. A lot of people who don’t choose permanent placement for whatever reason can see the value in a new form of cremated remains that solves so many things. You can give a stone away, and it is not like a little keepsake urn. You can move and still have your loved one. And you can put a stone in your garden and still see the person, and the stones don’t go away like ashes do … I just thought it was amazing.”

One thing led to another, and Stuart eventually signed on in an official capacity, helping out in various aspects. “Mostly, I’ve helped with the tracking system for cremated remains,” Stuart said. “I’ve also helped on the marketing and branding side.”

Looking at the business as a whole, Stuart said he hopes that moving forward, crematory operators will start to be paid more.

“There is such a wide range of salaries,” he observed. “My thought is why are we sometimes paying an employee who has to have the skills to carry out the task that has the most risk and liability in the business the least amount of wages? The crematory operator is the last one to get it right for you.” He added, “I would think that an employee who could cost you millions, you would invest a lot more in.”

He also hopes that more owners get serious about maintaining their equipment.

“A properly designed, operated and maintained piece of equipment should virtually never emit visible emissions,” he said. “Every year, you should have a preventative maintenance inspection conducted by a crematory service technician – not your buddy, but someone who knows cremation equipment.”

And if you are a high-volume user, having an inspection done every 300 cremations would be better, he said. “I have seen time and time again where firms have opted not to do the preventative maintenance inspection, and they have paid for it in repairs,” he said. “Emergency repairs should never happen. Any of the big things can be anticipated.”

While he is not on an airplane quite as much as he once was, Stuart said he’s not slowing down that much. In fact, he plans to stick around for a long time.

“I am having a blast,” he said. “It is fun again. And it is because of the people – my clients and the profession. It’s just a lot of fun – it’s not about the money.”

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Comments (1)

  • I found the story about Larry Stewart, Jr. to be inspiring and educational. I currently own and operate the first crematory in our county. Although, the retort we have in operation was originally designed for animal cremations in 1984, but was rebuilt and modified to serve as a retort for human cremation and sold to a funeral home in Ohio who operated it until about 2008 when it was replaced with a new model and sat in storage until 2018 when my funeral home purchased it as a temporary start up unit. Our cremation volume was only around 200 per year until which hardly sustained us due to the fact that we pledged to remain the most cost efficient and fair for everyone needing our service. So, in June of this year (2023) we started an online extension for cremations. Still keeping our vow to remain among the most affordable, our business skyrocketed doing more in 5 months than in all the previous years combined. And still with the refurbished retort that is rated to only perform 4 cremations per day and in a building completely constructed of recycled materials. We have been fortunate in growth enough to necessitate the need for a new unit. But, we are not fortunate enough to have built up the necessary capital to do so. Our credit is also in the tank due to many factors. Some being, covid, our commitment to keep our prices fair, and rapid decrease of full service funerals. So, I am reaching out asking for help and advice on getting a new retort. Monthly payments are no longer a problem. The problem is our poor credit puts the pinch on pursuing a purchase. Please help us to continue to provide affordable service to all in need. I am hoping that you will have insight or connections that we will be able to utilize with getting an upgrade. Thank you in advance.

    Kevin Kappler | November 5, 2023 at 8:43 am
    Reply

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