ISU cremation garden expected to be ‘wildly successful’

AMES — When someone living on the Iowa State University campus died in 1876, transporting the body for burial to the nearby city of Ames wasn't always easy.

In fact, in the spring it could be impossible. Squaw Creek, which separated ISU's campus from the city, would flood the roads connecting the then-separate entities.

And in those days one couldn't spend too much time making final arrangements.

'The solution in 1876 was to establish a cemetery on campus,' said Warren R. Madden, senior vice president for ISU Business and Finance. 'It was started out of necessity.'

In the nearly 140 years since, about 900 people have been buried in the ISU cemetery, one of the few remaining active university cemeteries in the nation. And although its five or so acres on the northwest corner of campus is getting tight, the university doesn't plan to halt interments.

The Board of Regents last week gave the go-ahead for Iowa State to start planning, marketing and constructing a new cremation garden in the cemetery. The project will include walls that contain cremation spaces — each about a cubit foot in size — and display plaques honoring those interred there.

It also will provide a place for those who simply want to memorialize loved ones on campus — regardless of their final resting place — with a brick or other type of marker.

The project's initial development costs could reach $1 million and potentially hold the remains of thousands, accommodating demand for the next 75 to 100 years, Madden said. ISU is contracting with Fans4Ever on the project, which will not proceed unless the university accomplishes enough advance sales to cover initial costs.

Madden said the university needs to sell 200 to 300 spaces to get going. Current market pricing puts costs per niche in the $6,000 range, according to Madden, who said some revenue must go into infrastructure, maintenance and perpetual endowment.

Should the process proceed through the fall and pre-sales reach expectations, ISU could start construction at the cemetery in the spring, Madden said.

'We could begin interring individuals there as of late spring or early summer,' he said.

Eligibility rules to loosen

Madden said he believes ISU will have more than enough interest to proceed, based on national trends and current demand.

'Today in the United States cremations account for 50 percent of interments, and they expect that will grow to 70 or 80 percent in the next 20 years as the baby boomer population passes away,' he said. 'Some of that is price. Some of it is custom. Some of it is environmental — some people think using land for full burials is not the best approach.'

In Iowa specifically, Madden said, demographics are changing. Small towns are dying, rural churches are closing, and some cemeteries are rejecting new burials.

'We have a large alumni base that live in the state of Iowa and, depending on where they are and what their interests are, we think there might be a growing interest from people who started their careers at ISU …

and their families want to have them interred here,' Madden said.

Full burials will continue in the ISU cemetery until it's full. And Madden said the recently approved cremation project includes upgrades to and additional burial space in the cemetery, potentially accommodating another five years of demand. But, he said, when the cemetery is full, the cremation garden will continue as the only interment option on campus.

And anyone wanting a space in the cremation garden will be allowed — contrasting strict requirements in place for full burials.

To be eligible for placement in the cemetery now, a person must have served the university continuously for at least 20 years and earned the rank of tenured assistant professor or higher or the equivalent non-academic rank.

He or she also must have left ISU to retire or due to death, and approval earns eligibility for a spouse and unmarried children. Unlike the new cremation garden, space in the cemetery cannot be reserved in advance.

Despite today's strict eligibility requirements, Madden said the first person laid to rest at ISU was a janitor who didn't have family in the area.

'The decision was made that they needed to bury him on campus, which they did, creating the cemetery,' Madden said.

Since its inception, seven Iowa State presidents have been interred in the campus cemetery — including W. Robert Parks, who died in 2003 after serving ISU from 1965 to 1986, and James H. Hilton, who died in 1982 after serving ISU from 1953 to 1965.

Madden — who has been associated with Iowa State for more than 50 years, been in his current role since 1985, and worked with at least five presidents — said he plans to be buried there with his wife.

'We hope this will not be in the near future,' he said.

'It's catching on'

At least 15 universities are engaging in similar cremation garden projects with Fans4Ever, and the company expects the trend to continue.

'It's catching on,' said Chris Arledge, general counsel for Dallas-based Fans4Ever, citing several factors.

First, he said, cremation is becoming more popular. Second, individuals and family members want to associate their final resting place with something important to them — such as a lake, trail or college campus.

'Increasingly colleges and universities are getting contacted about this,' Arledge said.

In schools without burial, cremation or memorial options, people more often have been taking it upon themselves to scatter remains on university grounds, according to Arledge.

'So schools are deciding to make this available,' he said.

As for active cemeteries on university campuses, Arledge said those are rare, and he doesn't expect that to change. University of Notre Dame and Texas A&M University are among the few public universities that — as with Iowa State — have functioning cemeteries.

Duke University — more in line with recent trends — has a memorial program that for $25,000 provides a stone with the deceased name on it and allows ashes to be scattered in a two-acre garden.

The University of Northern Iowa does not have a cemetery, but it does have a memorial garden allowing anyone to buy a brick in honor of a loved one.

the University of Iowa has neither. Its closest comparison comes through its deeded body program for those who donate their bodies to science. Cadavers typically are used for research and the cremated remains either are returned to families or interred at Iowa City's Oakland Cemetery.

Arledge said although Iowa State's cremation garden project is in its infancy, he expects it to be 'wildly successful.' University cremation gardens tie alumni and fans to a place they loved and bring family members coming back to the campus, he added.

'That makes it attractive to alums and families, but also to the university,' he said.