Don’t Mistake Dave McComb for a Typical Funeral Director ...“The only problem with that is if ... We Are Cremation Matthews Cremation is proud to feature the most advanced cremation

44 American Funeral Director • October 2011

he family business, D.O. McComb & Sons Funeral Homes in Fort Wayne, Ind., isn’tan afterthought, but it definitely competes for McComb’s attention. The fourth-gen-eration funeral director is the main investor of Eagle’s Wings Air, a minorityinvestor in Tributes.com, and he co-owns two preneed marketing companies and a

monument company with his brother, Doug.Throw in a cemetery, real estate holdingcompany and other ventures, and you have asomewhat busy man.

So far, McComb has kept a pretty low pro-file, and he ducks away from the spotlight.You can almost imagine him playing the roleof the great “wizard” in “The Wizard of Oz.His one line would be, “Pay no attention tothat man behind the curtain,” and then he’dretreat back into the shadows.

It’s behind the curtain where McComb doeshis best work. But if you ask him about it, he’llshrug off his successes and praise others. “Isuppose when you are not that smart, youhave to find smart people,” he said.

But he’s not fooling us: This type of successdoesn’t happen by chance, and it’s not abirthright, either. His growing empire of busi-nesses is the work product of someone whotakes advantage of opportunities that othersoverlook or just walk right on by.

AFD ProfileBy Thomas A. Parmalee

I really love thisbusiness. It’s a greatbusiness when youconsider that you canearn a living at it, and itserves your fellow manat the same time. Itserves a lot of purposes... at least in my life.

- Dave McComb ”

Most people have their hands full managing the day-to-day business of a funeral

home. But when you start talking to Dave McComb, you figure out pretty quickly

that he has a lot more on his mind.

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Don’t Mistake Dave McCombfor a Typical Funeral Director

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Pg. 44 AFD Profile (Parmalee):Pg. 00 Essay (Vogel) 9/12/11 4:50 PM Page 44

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“I look at the relationship betweenWall Street and Washington D.C., andit’s a relationship that I’m so farremoved from … the insiders are theinsiders,” McComb explained. “Theyknow the process better than anybody,and I’m not an insider. I don’t knowanything about what they do. Some ofthe things they talk about at boardmeetings are so foreign to me. That’s

for people who live in New York Cityor Washington D.C.”

That’s why McComb prefers to beon the front lines of any investment,where he knows how things are goingon a daily basis. “Funeral directorsaround the country do the same thingby investing in themselves,” he said.“The only problem with that is ifeverything you have is invested there.”

He added, “If you are going to have allyour eggs in one basket, you mustwatch them like a hawk.”

That’s a big reason why McCombbelieves in having many baskets – andthose baskets usually have a connec-tion to funeral service, where he is aninsider. “I like the idea of privateinvesting,” he said. “The best way toinvest money is with yourself.”

A History of ServiceMcComb is a fourth-generation

funeral director, but he got into thebusiness almost by chance.

“Originally, I was probably notgoing to go into the professionbecause it was lining up to be a situa-tion where there were going to be toomany McCombs, so I started at Pur-due University and started down thepath of business management,” hesaid. “Then, while I was at college,my dad called me on the phone tosay he purchased my uncle’s portionin the business, so that kind ofchanged my path.”

The opening was enough to encour-age McComb to join the family busi-ness, and now he oversees it with hisbrother, Doug. Their dad, Walter, leftthe business almost three years ago,leaving it up to his sons to continuethe family legacy. Walter felt it wasbetter to leave the business now so histwo sons can consult with him as nec-essary as they get used to running theshow. He remains involved on theboard level.

In his typical way, McComb saidthat his dad is also a lot smarter thanhe is. “My dad is a guy that probablyin some other life could have been atremendous engineer,” he said. “He hasa real creative mind and the ability tocome up with solutions for complexproblems. He has a couple of patentsfor the marine industry. He has a real-ly great mind, and I’m not as smart ashe is, but I love to try new things.Have we tried stuff and failed? Sure,but some of the stuff we’ve tried hasdone well.”

McComb’s older brother, Doug,described him as fiercely competitive.“He likes the zest of business and the


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challenges,” he said. Doug added that his younger siblingis also quite an athlete, having been a quarterback in highschool on the football team, playing basketball, runningtrack and swimming.

And despite his many business ventures, McComb han-dles everything admirably, according to Doug. “It doesn’tbog down his decision making process,” he said.

The business consists of seven locations – six of whichare in Fort Wayne – and the last location is in Auburn. Allare within 10 minutes of each other, and the business isentrenched in the community, which has lately fallen uponhard times. “Fort Wayne, Ind., is unfortunately part of theRust Belt, and we have a number of issues involving eco-nomic development for this area,” McComb said. “Ourpopulation has unfortunately been declining, and it con-tinues to decline. This has shown up in the death rate, andthat does concern me going forward – you bet.”

The business serves about 1,400 families per year, butthat’s about 7 percent to 10 percent below its high about10 years ago, according to McComb. Chalk it up to theeconomy, as thousands of people have lost their jobs amidfactory closures. “We’ve really taken it on the chin here inFort Wayne,” he said sorrowfully.

Despite the tough environment, McComb is reluctant tocut back too much, and he advised other funeral homes tobe wary of being too careful with their money. “Typicallycutting costs can mean bad things,” he warned. “You cancreate yourself a worse situation if you are not carefulwhat you’re doing. If you are cutting staff salaries, will thetop people leave? Probably. If you are cutting advertising,will that diminish your reach or visibility? Probably. Idon’t think those are smart things to do.”

Changing family dynamics and the increase in crema-tion are also affecting the funeral business at large,McComb said. “Some people who vacation in Florida halfthe year don’t come home anymore,” he said. “They havecremation, and that’s the end of it. Twenty years ago, theywould have had a service here. And that’s not just us –that’s anybody in the non-Southern states. I think thattrend will continue.”

One way to cope with the lower death rate and theincrease in cremation is to offer more services, includingreceptions. “People love the convenience of it,” McCombsaid. “When families come to your funeral home, typicallythey are family members that come in sizes from 10 to 30or 40. Those are awkward sizes for a restaurant to accom-modate but too small of a number to go to a receptionhall.”

McComb is also looking forward to completing con-struction on a freestanding crematory, which will have ahuman cremator and one specially designed for pets. “Thejury is out on whether the pet business is truly a place tospend time and effort or not,” McComb said, who ironi-cally lost his German shepherd as he was researching petcremator options. “I think pets have become more impor-tant companions than they were in the past; I’m guessingbecause people are more spread out.”


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Tips for the ProfessionMcComb is a big believer in focus-

ing on the basics, such as arrange-ment conferences.

“If you are a funeral home that hasmore than one funeral director, mysuggestion is anytime you are notdoing anything – rather than drink-ing coffee or playing golf or anythinglike that – is to role play the crema-tion scenario,” he said. “This meansone guy is standing in as the familyand the other as the arranger, andthen you change roles.”

During arrangement conferences,the trick is to follow the same formatevery single time, which can be chal-lenging. “You must develop a regi-mented process for arranging afuneral because if you don’t, you’llmiss an opportunity,” he said.

While some funeral directors try toget families in and out, McComb saidarrangement conferences can’t bedone in 90 minutes anymore. He rec-

ommended spending as much time asyou need on them, and to incorpo-rate computers and DVDs in theprocess to get concepts across. “Weare a visual society,” he said. “That’swhy YouTube is popular and why theInternet is popular. If it’s just youwriting on paper and explaining ver-bally what things are, then it’s notgoing to work.”

McComb said he has only four orso funeral directors making arrange-ments, and he suggested that special-ists handle the process because it’ssupremely important. You can evenbreak it up between funeral directorswho handle traditional burial fami-lies and cremation families. “If youare a firm that’s larger, you can stillhave a scenario where you have afuneral director that takes care ofone cremation family per month, andyou can’t get good at it serving onecremation family per month,” hesaid. “You have to serve many in a

month. So it might be a good idea forone guy to serve all cremation fami-lies.”

Funeral homes also need to bemore proactive when it comes toworking with tissue removal compa-nies, McComb said. “Do I mean forfuneral homes to get involved withthe removal of tissue? No, I don’tthink that’s appropriate. But you doneed to be involved in the facilitationof making sure it happens whensomeone wants it to happen,” hesaid.

The Cemetery, Monument andPreneed Businesses

About three years ago, McComb andhis brother bought Riverview Cemetery,which is about 43 acres. “Not much ofit was developed, so we had an oppor-tunity to redesign it and put in newroads and so forth,” he said.

McComb had been looking to buy a



cemetery for some time, but he’d been“significantly outbid” by SCI andLoewen on a property he’d had his eyeson. Finally, Riverview came along. “Thisyear, we will finish out over 100 buri-als,” he said. “We’ve been marketing itthrough our preneed staff, and they’vebeen selling graves.”

He’s been involved in preneed forquite a lot longer, however, mainlybecause he saw early on that cemeterieswere competing with his funeral busi-ness. “Back in 1986, the cemeterieswere doing a great job at marketingtheir services to people in this communi-ty, and my father and my uncle, whowere in the business at the time, Iremember them talking about howcemeteries have eroded our vault sales.And I said the only way you could stopthat was to make the sale first,”McComb said.

After that, he dove into researchingthe preneed business. “I got a hold ofsome American Cemetery magazines

from a buddy down in Florida, whosaid if you want to learn about preneed,‘This is where you look.’ The cemeterymagazines were 20 years ahead offuneral directors in the 1980s when itcame to preneed. You couldn’t find outwhat you needed to know from funeralmagazines; you needed the other ones.So we applied principles from the ceme-tery business.”

He went on a pilgrimage of sorts toTampa, Fla., to learn from the expertshe revered: The masterminds at Stew-art Enterprises. According toMcComb, “I took the principles Ilearned there and applied them here,reversing the trend of losing burialvault sales to cemeterians.”

In 1986, McComb and his brotherDoug formed Estate Security, whichhandles the preneed business for D.O.McComb & Sons. They formedanother insurance entity in 1999, Pre-mier Preneed, which represents otherfuneral homes throughout Indiana.

“We just applied the principles thatworked here in Fort Wayne to othermarketplaces in the state,” McCombsaid of the formation of Premier Pre-need. “We are not the biggest thirdparty in Indiana, but most everyonehas heard of us.”

Estate Security and Premier Preneedhave written a block of business “in theneighborhood of $100 million,” soMcComb’s foray into preneed market-ing has certainly been far from a failure.McComb uses Forethought Life Insur-ance products across both preneed busi-nesses. “We’ve used Forethought allalong; they’ve treated us real well,” hesaid. “They have a pretty wide range ofproducts to fit the circumstances youdeal with.”

Most people with a funeral home,cemetery and preneed marketingbusiness to run would have stoppedthere, but McComb and his brotherbought Birkmeier & Sons MonumentCo. in Fort Wayne in 2004. “That’s a



nice company,” McComb said.“We’ve been very fortunate that twoof the other monument companieshave gone out of business. Therewere four competitors, and nowthere are two, so that’s a plus. Ourmanager, Lisa Scheurich, has done atremendous job and totally turned itaround since we purchased it; thefacility looks fantastic!”

But “it’s not easy to make a profitin the monument business,”McComb said. Getting into the busi-ness was a strategic move, however,because monument companies areprimary competitors for cemeteries.“We needed it to fulfill the productofferings for the family and to have adirect influence on the outcome ofthe product,” he explained. “We actu-ally manufacture monuments downthere. They send us the granite, andwe do the sandblasting and etching.We are the only one in this area to dothat.”

Tributes.comMcComb stepped out of his comfort

zone in October 2008 when he madean investment in Tributes.com, whichbills itself as being “the online resourcefor current local and national obituarynews, lasting tributes celebrating thelives of loved ones, and an online com-munity to provide support during

times of loss and grieving.”Tributes.com was part of the larger

Eons.com when McComb first stum-bled across it after hearing about itfrom a friend. “I really liked this pieceof it called Tributes; it had a lot goingfor it,” he said. Eventually, he becameone of five investors, and he sits on thecompany’s advisory board, which wasfounded by Jeff Taylor, who first madea name for himself as the founder ofMonster Worldwide.

So far, the company has surpassedeven McComb’s lofty expectations. “Itcontinues to grow at a rather rapidpace measured by its unique visits everymonth, which is in excess of 2 million,”he said. “That’s quite an accomplish-ment in a short period of time.”

McComb said the reason the Trib-utes.com business model was soappealing to him is that he was fed upwith newspapers stealing the workproduct of the funeral homes andprofiting from it in collusion withLegacy.com, which is Tributes.com’smain competitor.

“The funeral home has no relation-ship with Legacy,” he said. “It’s with thenewspaper, and the newspaper takesthe work product form the funeralhome and the family and redistributesit to Legacy. That’s a bad relationship –one in which there is no communica-tion and no strategy. It’s done through a

typically disinterested third party.”He added, “With the Tributes model

– the funeral home is at the center.”He emphasized, “The obituary is thework product of the funeral directorand the family; it’s not the workproduct of the newspaper. If there isany part of this online obituary thingthat needs to be understood – it’sthat the funeral director is the owner.It is their work product – not thework product of the newspaper.”

McComb also pointed out that funer-al homes need to focus on the onlineelement when promoting obituaries andservice times. “Guess what is happeningto the business life of a newspaper?” heasked. “It is heading downhill, and it’sheading downhill fast!”

Some final factors in making aninvestment in Tributes.com includedsupport and input from family mem-bers as well as feeling comfortablewith the company’s main decision-makers. “There are a lot of smart peo-ple involved in this business,”McComb shared. “When you look atinvesting in any company, I think youhave to start with the people who areinvolved and what is their track recordand so forth. I can tell you that thepeople involved on the board levelwith Tributes are a world-class team.”

Tom Johnson, chairman of JohnsonConsulting Group in Scottsdale, Ariz.,



hailed McComb as “one ofthe leading funeral direc-tors in Indiana and proba-bly the country.” He added,“He is very innovative anddefinately thinks outsidethe box ... Briefly said,David is a consummatebusinessman who hastaken the legacy his fatherleft him and taken it tonew levels of success.”

John Heald, vice presi-dent of business develop-ment and sales ofTributes.com, and a co-owner with Heald-Chi-ampa Funeral Directors inShrewsbury, Mass., calledMcComb “one of the mostforward-thinking, always-thinking businesspeople Iknow.” He added, “He’salways pushing us to comeup with new ideas, or he’ll have anidea and float it by us. The beautyabout it is it might be 1 in the after-noon, and he could shoot me an email,or 1 in the morning.”

McComb is never on cruise control;he’s always seeking to find the nextinnovation, according to Heald. “Theguy absolutely amazes me every singleday,” he said. “I call him ‘sneaky smart’in that he’s got so many things going

on, and it’s hard for us to imagine withall the different entities he’s involved inthat he knows which way is straight.Yet he finds time to manage each ofthem and grow them successfully. Hesurrounds himself by the right people,and he lets people do what they arecapable of. And when he needs to getinvolved, he certainly does.”

What Heald might admire mostabout McComb, however, is how he’s

managed to work so hard while stillspending quality time with his family.“He’s a family guy, and he certainlyfinds ways to enjoy life, too,” Healdsaid. “He’s found the perfect balance.”

That balance includes his wife of15 years, Cheryl, who also works atthe funeral home. McComb creditsher with playing a critical role inmaintaining the décor of the funeralhome. His mother, Jean McComb,

55American Funeral Director • October 2011

(From left to right) Doug, Walter and Dave McCombin front of an an old-fashioned, horse drawn funeralcoach at Huntertown Heritage Days, which is anannual parade that honors the James and MargaretMcComb family.


also performed an important func-tion for the funeral home fordecades, tracking obituaries to definemarket share.

Eagle’s WingsThe latest McComb investment that’s

paying off big is his involvement inEagle’s Wings Air in Fort Wayne, whichmanages the shipment of humanremains for funeral homes. (AmericanFuneral Director profiled the compa-ny’s president and CEO, Frank Kaiser,in its March issue.)

McComb is the primary investor inEagle’s Wings and serves as the com-pany’s chairman. Kaiser, who formerlyworked with UPS Airlines, was man-aging the customer service division ofKitty Hawk Cargo when he struck upa friendship with McComb, who wasa client of the airline. The two hadalready begun talking about how theshipping business could be improvedfor funeral homes by the time Kitty

Hawk went out of business, leavingKaiser a free agent.

Since launching Eagle’s Wings inMarch 2008, it’s become a quick suc-cess. The company books the flights forall of Inman Shipping Worldwide’scases and also serves Service Corpora-tion International on a nationwidebasis.

Kaiser, who can often be foundreviewing strategy with McComb atthe funeral home’s Lakeside facility,has words of praise for his compa-ny’s chairman. “He allows me to runthe business, manage the businessplan and actually choose the strategy,”Kaiser said. “He’s more of an adviser tome per se, which is really his role asthe chairman of our company. Theflexibility and the freedom to executethe strategy are not only refreshing,but it’s very effective in how wework. Obviously, my strength is logis-tics and air transportation.”

Speaking to McComb, it’s clear the

respect goes both ways. “Frank Kaiseris a very meticulous, regimented presi-dent and manager,” he said. “Hisbackground is from the air cargoworld; he’s worked for UPS and hehas UPS in his blood – ‘brown’ – as hecalls it.”

So far, Eagle’s Wings has exceededMcComb’s expectations in a lot ofways, he said. “We are very fortunate tohave some very good anchor clients,and the people that use us typically useus again. Why do it if you can havesomeone do it for you?”

McComb also prides himself onbeing able to work with competitors,such as the death-care professionalswith SCI who compete with his funeralhome locally in Fort Wayne but whowork with him on a national level as aclient of Eagle’s Wings. “We providethem a service,” he said, noting thatcompetitors can work together in everymarket without being involved in collu-sion. “It’s just whether you want to be



the first guy to put your hand out,” hesaid.

Tributes.com and Eagle’s Wings areboth special in their own ways, andeach investment has encouragedMcComb to step outside his comfortzone. “With Tributes, we are living inthe age of websites and the Internetand so forth, and that company isjust in the thick of it,” McComb said.“When you think of two million peo-ple a month accessing the websiteyou are involved in – that in itself isvery exciting. But the growth withEagle’s Wings Air is exciting, too. It’sjust been a real pleasure to beinvolved with both of them.”

Hopeful for the FutureOf course, it’s not as though every ven-

ture McComb pursues leads to an emer-ald city. He still cringes when hethinks back to an investment he madethat would have made funeral homesprime places to collect DNA samplesfor families. “I didn’t lose a lot on it; Iprobably lost a lot more time than any-

thing,” he said. “I still don’t understandwhy it doesn’t work.”

But McComb let that go some 15years ago, at least on the surface. “I stillthink about it,” he said. “It still seemslike a logical thing to do – especially forfamilies that have genetic illnesses in thefamily, or even if you want to find out ifsomeone carries a recessive gene forsome illness.” He added, “The opportu-nity is there to save DNA of the personwho died, and I think it’s very impor-tant, but the funeral home is not theplace to do that; it’s probably some-where else – maybe at the hospital orhospice. But that was one that I washoping would work out, and it seemedlogical that it would.”

While McComb’s varied businessesproduce cash flow from a variety ofplaces, it’s still the funeral home that isat the heart of everything, and he looksforward to having other family mem-bers continue the family legacy of ser-vice. His brother’s daughter, Jannelle, is aregistered nurse and she’s recently goneinto the family business as a “funeral

service intern,” according to McComb,who said he expects her to be fullylicensed in a few more months. He hastwo grown daughters, Jessica andNicole, who are not in the business, buthe’s still holding out hope that his 11-year-old son, David Jr., will one dayanswer the calling. At least a father candream, right?

There certainly is no doubt, how-ever, that McComb himself is wherehe wants and needs to be. “I reallylove this business,” he said. “It’s agreat business when you considerthat you can earn a living at it, and itserves your fellow man at the sametime. It serves a lot of purposes … atleast in my life.” �

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Don’t Mistake Dave McComb for a Typical Funeral Director ...“The only problem with that is if ... We Are Cremation Matthews Cremation is proud to feature the most advanced cremation