Michael Jewart Appointed as Leader of Starmark®, North America’s Leading Cremation Solutions Provider.

RICHMOND, IN, August 15, 2025 – Starmark is pleased to announce the appointment of Michael Jewart to lead Starmark. With more than a decade of helping funeral professionals succeed, Michael expands Starmark’s mission to deliver innovative, cost-effective, and operationally seamless cremation solutions that empower funeral providers to serve families with excellence and profitability.

Starmark currently serves North America through its factory-direct approach and white-glove Starmark Local Service Centers. Over the next 24 months, the Starmark Local expansion will cover more than 50 territories across the U.S., Canada, and the Caribbean. 

“By being closer to more funeral professionals across all of North America, Starmark can best respond to their needs in real time and ensure those who serve families have the resources, products, and support to deliver exceptional service,” added Jewart. “We’re offering funeral professionals the best cremation solutions along with the Starmark Promise: Guaranteed Best Pricing Apples to Apples Every Time.” 

As part of his role at Starmark, Michael will serve as Chief Commercial Officer, overseeing the entire portfolio of funeral brands — from Goliath™ Oversize and Elderlite® Cloth-Covered to CJ Boots Signature Hardwoods, Chateau Urns, Nature’s Way® Green Funeral Line, AMA Containers, Artisan Containers™, and many other partnered brands, all unified by a common mission: helping funeral professionals succeed in a rapidly evolving marketplace. 

Family-owned and rooted in funeral service for over a century, Starmark and its parent company’s team of more than 300 dedicated members serve thousands of funeral professionals and collaborate with hundreds of world-class brands, including many Fortune 500 companies and OEM automotive manufacturers worldwide. Supported by over 950,000 square feet of operations across North America and more than 80 issued and pending patents, Starmark is leading the future of Funeral Service with a mission to make the world a better place.

“I’ve known Michael for over a decade, and his experience and vision are exactly what Starmark needs to further solidify its leadership in cremation solutions while remaining steadfast in our commitment to helping funeral homes thrive,” said Justin Davis, Starmark President. “Our goal has never been to be just another casket company offering cremation products. By truly listening to funeral professionals and the families they serve, Starmark has helped lead funeral service into a new era with innovative and meaningful solutions for cremation.” 

About Starmark: Starmark Cremation Products creates Sensible Solutions™ for funeral professionals to help families honor life’s most meaningful moments with grace and respect. It is all about celebrating the lives of loved ones with dignity and care. This belief inspires everything we do at Starmark, allowing funeral service professionals and families to focus on love, legacy, and healing.

For more information, visit: www.starmarkcp.com 

Batesville Named One of America’s Most Trustworthy Companies for Second Year in Newsweek Study

BATESVILLE, Ind., April 10, 2025 – Batesville, a leading provider of high-quality burial and cremation products and innovative technology solutions to deathcare professionals across North America, earned its second spot in Newsweek’s list of Most Trustworthy Companies in America for 2025. This prestigious award is presented by Newsweek and Statista Inc., the world-leading statistics portal and industry ranking provider. Batesville achieved a top twenty ranking in the Consumer Goods category, alongside a variety of global brand leaders, moving up five positions from its first appearance in 2024.

“Trust is essential in building successful relationships – with our employees, with the deathcare professionals we are privileged to serve, and with families who purchase Batesville products to honor their loved ones,” said Chris Trainor, CEO of Batesville. “We are incredibly proud to be recognized as one of the Most Trustworthy Companies in America for the second year in a row.”

Newsweek’s Most Trustworthy Companies in America list is based on an independent study that measures trust across three pillars: consumer, investor and employee trust. All public and private companies headquartered in the U.S. with over $500 million in annual revenue were eligible for consideration. The list is built on an innovative methodology that includes survey input from approximately 25,000 U.S. residents, a review of more than 97,000 evaluations and analysis of 304,000 online mentions. The 700 companies with the highest scores have been recognized as the Most Trustworthy Companies in America for 2025.

Headquartered in southeastern Indiana, Batesville is proud to be an American manufacturer that has served funeral homes and families in the U.S. and Canada for nearly 120 years.

From its origin as a manufacturer of high-quality caskets, the company has continued to adapt and expand its capabilities to meet the needs of funeral consumers. Today, Batesville offers a comprehensive portfolio of burial and cremation products, innovative technology solutions for funeral homes, cemeteries and crematories, profit-enhancing merchandising tools, and an unparalleled collection of personalization and memorialization offerings. 

The company leverages research with its customers and end-consumers to create unique and compelling products that are aligned with the functional needs and personal preferences of today’s families. Over the last year, Batesville has introduced a distinguished line of military-inspired caskets to honor veterans, expanded its collection of Dimensions^® oversize caskets, added more than 150 new cremation urns, jewelry and keepsake items, including an exclusive line of ceramic urns by Rookwood^® Pottery, and delivered major technology enhancements for funeral homes, cemeteries and crematories. One of the most compelling is the new Family Choices^® physical and digital merchandising solution, which uses advanced technology and modern components to provide a better product selection experience for grieving families.

Batesville operates four award-winning manufacturing facilities in North America and has a high-velocity distribution system with over 90 regional and local service centers, allowing the company to deliver outstanding customer service. Batesville employs more than 3,000 dedicated and hard-working associates who are guided by five core values:  

• Individual Worth and Integrity
• Excellence in Execution
• Continuous Learning and Improvement
• Courage
• Customer Focus and Partnership

To learn more, visit Most Trustworthy Companies in America 2025 – Newsweek Rankings.

ABOUT BATESVILLE SERVICES, LLC

Batesville (www.Batesville.com) is a recognized leader in the deathcare industry in North America, offering a comprehensive portfolio of burial and cremation products, innovative technology solutions and an unparalleled array of personalization and memorialization offerings. For more than a century, Batesville has supported deathcare professionals in helping families honor the lives of those they love.^® A history of manufacturing excellence, product innovation, superior customer service, and reliable delivery helped Batesville become – and remain – a market leader. 

Many of us have gotten accustomed to watching the television series “Yellowstone” in recent years.  While that series takes place in Montana, a county in Wyoming that borders Idaho and Montana contains 40% of Yellowstone National Park’s total area.  Teton County of Wyoming, also “had the highest average incomes per capita of any county in the United States, at $252,000″ in 2019 according to this listing from Wikipedia.

The Wikipedia article also makes these comments:

• “As of the fourth quarter of 2021, the median home price in Teton County was $1,060,093, an increase of 17.8% from the prior year.”
• “It is estimated that as of 2023 Teton County had a population of 23,232”

The City of Jackson and the Jackson Hole ski area are both within the confines of Teton County. . . a county that one would have to describe as “remote”.

It’s with that background that I recently read this article from the Jackson Hole News & Guide titled “Funeral home fights for its life“.  The article deals with Jackson’s only mortuary and their apparent struggles with profitability.

Related — Here is the website for Grand Teton Funeral Home and Cremation of Jackson, Wyoming.

Tom Anderson
Funeral Director Daily

Funeral Director Daily take:  Funeral Director Daily has authored similar stories of issues for funeral homes in remote locations.  For instance, here is a story of similar issues from the Prince Rupert, British Columbia, Canada, geographic area.  We’ve also done stories of funeral homes exiting high-priced urban areas, such as San Francisco, because of the cost of real estate.  In those cases, however, there are suburban funeral homes within a short distance to pick up the business.

In the cases of Prince Rupert and Teton County funeral home help is probably at least one hour away.  And, that causes a problem when town folk have a death in the family.

You can read the article on the Jackson funeral home and its issues.  However, one thing I wonder about is the idea of numbers of deaths in Teton County.  From this graph you can see that the United States had about 8.5 deaths per 1,000 population prior to the pandemic in 2019.  Teton County, with a population of 23,000 should see a total number of deaths, according to that statistic, of about 195 annually.  Yet if you take a look at the funeral home’s website and its current obituaries you will notice only 3 obituaries for the first two months of 2025.

While I have no answers one has to wonder if there is more to the story?  Is the population of Teton County very young? . . . .Does the wealthy citizen population have 2nd homes in areas that they move to when their health is failing?

In any regards I found this an interesting story and an issue those of us in more urban geographic areas don’t even know exists among our colleagues.

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“A servant’s attitude guided by Christ leads to a significant life”

Kansas United States Senator Jerry Moran recently testified at a United States Senate Veterans Affairs Committee meeting that “When mourning a death the last thing a grieving family needs is some bureaucratic hurdle or some substandard support.”

That comment came in response to the information provided, according to this article,  that “there is a backlog of facility upgrade requests submitted by 128 state, territorial and tribal veterans’ cemeteries in the United States”.  The article further states that it would cost an estimated $220 million to address two dozen projects that have been on the national waiting list for more than five years.

While it was noted that State Veteran Cemeteries take some of the demand off the National Cemeteries they also require upkeep and improvements.  Kansas has a National Cemetery at Fort Leavenworth and four State Military Cemeteries located at Fort Dodge, WaKeeney, Fort Riley, and Winfield.

The United States Department of Veterans Affairs Grants Program was began in 1978 to complement the VA’s national cemeteries.  According to information found here, the program has expended over $922 million in grants to establish and/or expand these complimentary cemeteries owned and operated by states, territories, and tribal governments since its inception.

Tom Anderson
Funeral Director Daily

Funeral Director Daily take:  According to this information, the Department of Veterans Affairs operates 155 national cemeteries through the National Cemetery Administration.

It’s a little like a doubled-edged sword. . . . the National Cemetery Administration, with its national cemetery system, served the purpose of honoring our veterans for a long time on its own.  From my point of view — and I’ll use my home state of Minnesota as an example — it eventually became necessary to expand the locations available for deceased veterans and their families over time and for a couple of reasons.

In Minnesota we had one Veterans Cemetery — the Fort Snelling National Cemetery in Minneapolis, Minnesota.  While I don’t know for certain, I believe it was the increase in the population’s veteran numbers with the World War II generation coupled with the fact that many wanted to be buried closer to their home city that resulted in the State of Minnesota establishing a State Veterans Cemetery in northern Minnesota at Camp Ripley in 1994.

Since that time, the State of Minnesota has opened three more state veterans cemeteries to complete the mission of allowing our veterans and their eligible dependents to be memorialized closer to home.  However, if other states are like Minnesota, that increasing number has put a stress on the amounts that our national government, through the Veteran’s Affairs grant program, can offer these complimentary cemeteries annually for upkeep and improvements.

And, while that is probably reality, it is also disappointing because, in my opinion, being remembered and memorialized for sacrifice and call to duty above self, is as American as America itself.  I’m of the opinion that if America took the time to find the appropriations necessary for this from other areas of our government’s spending. . . and also to teach the high ideals of this sacrifice. . . our nation would be a lot better off.

Related Topic —  While the article mentions that since 1978 $922 million has been granted by the federal authorities for these cemeteries and there is a backlog of $220 million in improvements waiting for funding for over five years, it appears that is a drop in the bucket for what is needed — or at least requested — for cemetery improvements.  Here you can find the U.S. Government 2024 Fiscal Year List of State and Tribal Government Pre-Grant applications. . . . it appears that the total dollars requested for 2024 alone is over $295 million.  Somebody will have to make some tough decisions on what makes the cut and what doesn’t.

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“A servant’s attitude guided by Christ leads to a significant life”