“We’re moving from a ceremonial base or agenda to a social agenda in the course of serving families,” said Ron Hast, publisher of Funeral Monitor newsletter and Mortuary Management magazine. “So our purpose is to provide a comfort zone…for people to work through the process of their grief.”

–Journal Sentinel Online, Wisconsin

  Ron Hast, sage, controversial commentator, legend in funeral service, friend of many, left us on August 20, 2013 at the age of 74. I can assure that his voice and his printed words will be missed.

  I enjoy writing and funeral service had become my life, so in 1977 (at the learned age of 22) I sent my first submission to Mortuary Management and it was printed. Ron sent me an encouraging note and solicited more submissions. I would send in three to four essays a year for over a decade and most were published by Ron.

  In the early 1980s I was the Massachusetts State Chairman for the Order of the Golden Rule. Ron was a presenter at one of the conferences. I stood in line to shake his hand and he recognized my name. Ron invited me to visit his funeral home in Los Angeles as he knew I despised the cold New England winters.

  The next year, after an OGR conference in Phoenix, I visited Los Angeles and Ron. He and Steve Nimz gave a tour of the spacious Venice Boulevard location of Abbott & Hast Funeral Home. The next day he and Steve picked me up at my hotel and we traveled to Marina Del Rey to board “Tribute”, his motor yacht. Parked next door was Ed McMahon’s boat, “Victoria”. We walked by Robert Wagner’s yacht, “Splendor” which was covered over and had not been used since Natalie Wood’s tragic death upon it.

  Other quick memories Ron shared were the house where Ozzie & Harriet lived (their actual home that was shown on their show) and the Wilson family (of the Beach Boys fame) lived in the same neighborhood.   Ron had told me when he had his airplane it was moored next to Walt Disney’s aircraft and of the brief discussions they had had. Ron was not a boorish name dropper – sometimes you had to pull this out of him.

  This was what it was like to spend time with Ron Hast, and partner Steve Nimz, who was always a genial, and patient, co-host. Steve was a great part of Ron’s success.

  When Ron sold the Venice Boulevard location and moved his funeral home to the Silver Lake section of Los Angeles, I visited there also. Ron asked me if I wished to accompany him on an urn graveside service at Forest Lawn Cemetery in Hollywood Hills. Quickly agreeing, we drove to these famous grounds adjacent to Disney Studios. The eulogist at the committal was a head writer for the Carol Burnett Show. Ron also gave me a history lesson about Forest Lawn’s founding by Dr. Hubert Eaton, now in the care of the Llewellyn family.

  I moved to Southern California in 1990 and talked to Ron fairly often. In 1994 I had moved north to the Modesto, California area. Ron called me and asked me if I knew where Tiburon in the Bay area was. I did not. He was about to put a deposit on a waterfront home there.

  Ron always had a sense of style. When I visited his home in the Hollywood Hills, not that far behind the iconic HOLLYWOOD sign where deer roamed, it was comfortable and well appointed. I knew his home in Tiburon would be the same. It was, and more. This beautiful home in Marin County, located in a quiet section gave a sense of tranquility. In the backyard was the dock where the “Tribute” was moored.

  He and Steve hosted several seminars at the Tiburon Lodge but the highlight was the gathering at his home in Tiburon. Dungeness crabs and grilled oysters were my favorite. Ron would sit at the piano and play with such fluid motion – be it classical or musicals. One of my favorite memories was at the Tiburon Lodge, I returned from dinner to find Ron at the keyboard, with Enoch Glascock (who had purchased Abbott & Hast Mortuary) and my wife April singing any song that the assembled requested. At one seminar, shortly before her death, Ron invited longtime acquaintance Jessica Mitford (author of The American Way of Death) to speak at a seminar. We spent time with her and exchanged views but her charm and wit made it difficult to dislike her. I had brought my college dog-eared copy of her book which she gladly autographed.

  Ron’s contributions to this industry were many and here are a few of them:

·     He started a flower delivery service from funeral homes to cemeteries that grew into a fifty-plus automobile livery business that grew into the buying and selling of funeral homes.

·     He maintained a collection of hearses and limousines from many decades that were used in over 300 movies. He also rented caskets and other funeral paraphernalia to studios.

·     He and partner Allan Abbott designed the casket air-tray that we know today. Abbott & Hast started turning station wagons and other like automobiles into “conversion” vehicles appropriate for removals and other dignified transportation.

·     He and Allan Abbot were pallbearers at Marilyn Monroe’s funeral and provided livery for many other stars including Natalie Wood, Clark Gable, Jack Benny, Gary Cooper, Ernie Kovacs, Jack Warner, Mario Lanza, David O. Selznick, Karen Carpenter and Los Angeles Police Chief William H. Parker.

  Ron was un-giving on some of his core beliefs. He would listen but you knew your argument was challenged before you started. He was polite but could be unbending. This caused a tension on the issue of whether embalming is necessary for public viewing, but after some push and pull we agreed to disagree.

  The voice that has been silenced is one I will still expect to call out of the blue or hear that familiar voice when I called him back at 1-xxx-Ron Hast.

  Thank you Ron for your encouragement, your education, your wisdom, your humor, your hospitality and your provoking deep thought on complex issues that affect our industry.

  But most of all Ron, thanks for the memories!

  “We are constantly reminded that the public is in charge of death care. When costs exceed the public’s willingness to pay, or changes in perceived values take place, the buying public will prevail and force changes over time. The challenge is for funeral directors to find ways to appeal to families in need. The first order of business is to do away with insensible rules and restrictions, such as the elimination of hospitality and food service on the basis of public health. And most important of all, is to listen.”

–Ron Hast, Mortuary Management, April 2011