CEMETERY INDUSTRY Man built his success from the ground up

Gerald Werner is retiring after 52 years in the cemetery business.
CANTON (AP) -- Some people climb the corporate ladder. Gerald Werner dug his way to success.
Werner began working at Sunset Hills Memorial Gardens as a 14-year-old boy digging ditches and graves. He'll retire next month after 52 years in the cemetery business.
"I started below the ground and worked my way up," said Werner, who keeps a gold-colored, nicked and dented, 20-pound sledgehammer that he used when he started at Sunset Hills in his office. "I'm not smart, but the important thing is I surrounded myself with good people. When you work with good people, you can't go wrong."
Job in site
Werner, 66, began in 1953 when he rode his maroon and lavender Shelby bicycle from his grandparents' farm in Jackson Township to the Henry Thomas Farm, where he saw some activity taking place.
Landowner Richard Smart told Werner he was turning the farm into a burial site. Not one to pass up an opportunity, Werner asked for a job.
"He told me, 'I have all kinds of work for you, but I can't pay you,"' Werner recalled. Werner took the job with Smart's promise to eventually put him on the payroll at 50 cents an hour.
"I worked after school and on weekends," Werner said. "He paid me every cent and a little more."
Werner's first tasks were digging ditches and planting trees that still stand at the cemetery. Three months later in June 1953, he dug the first grave.
Makings of a legend
When Werner graduated from Jackson High School in 1957, instead of becoming an apprentice in carpentry as he always thought he'd do, the Smarts convinced him to remain at Sunset Hills.
Werner was steadily promoted at Sunset Hills and helped to develop several other burial sites within northeast Ohio.
When Sunset Hills was sold to Moreland International in 1984, Werner earned a regional title. When Houston-based Service Corporation International acquired Sunset Hills in 1988, Werner was given a national position in the company.
"He's absolutely a legend," said Bob Marks, former national American sales director at the company. "It's a testament to Jerry's way of life. He brought a loving touch to everything he did. He will be greatly missed."