News

New director hopes to improve service
at Allouez cemetery

By Tony Staley
Compass Editor

When the Green Bay Diocese was looking for a new administrator for Allouez Catholic Cemetery and Mausoleum they wanted someone with experience.

Enter Andrew John "A.J." Porter, a third generation cemeterian, whose family, starting with his grandfather, has owned and operated Highland Memorial Park in New Berlin.

Porter got his start there, working on the grounds crew, pulling weeds, mowing lawns and working in the office. He also worked 10 years at large, corporate-owned funeral homes and cemeteries in Denver, Memphis, Minneapolis and Flint, Mich. Most recently, he owned and co-managed a cemetery and funeral home in central Tennessee.

"I enjoy helping the families at a very, very difficult time in their lives. We have an opportunity to do a lot of good with families at that time and I enjoy doing that myself, obviously, but also helping my staff meet the needs of all those families."

Porter said his main responsibilities are answering questions from families, helping them arrange committal services and urging families to take care of funeral and burial needs well in advance, rather than at the time of death, so their decisions are not driven by emotion.

"Plus if it's a husband and wife situation, they are able to do it together. They can have that important discussion and decide what's really important for them collectively as a couple and individually too," Porter said.

Porter oversees a staff of four - Karen Hobbins and Dennis Miller, who are in charge of keeping permanent records, and Jim Kern and Lynne Rasmussen in sales.

The grounds and mausoleum cleaning staff are supervised separately.

Porter has two daughters, Gena, a student at UW-Eau Claire, and Jacque, a sophomore at De Pere High School. He said he moved to Green Bay to be closer to his family.

Porter said he has known about Allouez Catholic Cemetery for years and was always impressed by the facilities.

"We have beautiful facilities. We have wonderful staff. Our opportunities over at Allouez would be to find different ways to serve the families in a larger capacity than we currently are," Porter said.

One way he wants to do that is through the new family service program. It provides care to families between death and committal, as well as after-care in the days and weeks that follow so families will always have a specific person they can contact for answers to their questions.

"We are very excited to have someone with A.J.'s experience here at the diocese," said Debra Van Pay, diocesan director of Facilities and Properties. "He comes to us with outstanding recommendations and is highly respected among his peers. His prior experience provides him with a perspective that we believe will be a great benefit to those in which we are entrusted to serve at Allouez Catholic Cemetery and Chapel Masoleum."

As for Porter, he pointed to his 21 years in cemetery management. That means, he said, "I must love it."