Kenneth E. Varner, CCFE, president and CEO of Cypress Lawn Cemetery Association was elected president

VARNER ELECTED PRESIDENT

OF INTERNATIONAL CEMETERY, CREMATION AND FUNERAL ASSOCIATION 

STERLING, VA (March 17, 2011) – Kenneth E. Varner, CCFE, president and chief executive officer of Cypress Lawn Cemetery Association in Colma, California, serving San Francisco and the Greater Bay Area, was elected president of the International Cemetery, Cremation and Funeral Association (ICCFA) during its 2011 Annual Convention & Exposition, March 8-11 in Las Vegas, Nevada.

In addition to serving as president and CEO, Varner also is president and chairman of the board of Cypress Lawn’s for-profit subsidiaries and the non-profit Cypress Lawn Heritage Foundation. 

Varner previously served six terms as treasurer of the ICCFA, chairman of the ICCFA Finance Committee, chairman of the ICCFA Future Directions Committee and member of the association’s Executive Committee.  He served on the ICCFA board of directors from 1999 to 2002 and from 2004 to 2007.  He is a past president of the Cemetery & Mortuary Association of California and serves as that organization’s chief financial officer, member of the board of directors and chairman of its Nominating Committee.  He currently serves on the board of directors of the Funeral Service Foundation, a national philanthropic organization.

Varner is a member of the Historic Cemetery Alliance, Cemetery Council, National Funeral Directors Association, Cremation Association of North America and Preferred Funeral Directors International, and he is a frequent speaker at state and national professional events.

He entered the cemetery and funeral service profession in 1989 and previously held positions as controller, general manager and regional manager of cemeteries and combination cemetery/funeral home companies for The Loewen Group International until 1996 when he joined Cypress Lawn.  

Varner holds a bachelor of science with a dual major in accounting and finance from Oregon State University. He received a certified public accounting (CPA) license from the state of Oregon in 1982. He holds a Certified Cemetery Funeral Executive (CCFE) designation in recognition of his extensive cemetery and funeral management experience and skills. 

He is involved with various community educational groups. In February of 2010, he was elected president of the board of the San Mateo County Community College Foundation, which raises and manages scholarship funds for 40,000 students on three community college campuses.

Founded in 1887, the ICCFA is the only international trade association representing all segments of the cemetery, cremation, funeral and memorialization industry. Its membership is composed of 7,500 cemeteries, funeral homes, crematories, memorial designers and related businesses worldwide.

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Our Story

In the 1860’s Laurel Hill Cemetery was the premier cemetery of San Francisco with wide streets and beautiful trees and gardens. The citizens of San Francisco would ride through its wide streets on summer evening carriage rides. Travel logs recommended it as a site to visit while in San Francisco. With one fatal flaw, it had no funds or trust money to maintain the gardens and streets. By the 1890’s it was in disrepair and considered a public disgrace. But from that disgrace was born the idea of Cypress Lawn. While taking a carriage ride with a friend in the early 1890’s Hamden Noble, the founder of Cypress Lawn, commented to his friend on Laurel Hill’s plight. Mr. Noble’s friend suggested to Hamden that he should start a new cemetery, one that would surpass the beauty of Laurel Hill while learning from its plight the importance of building an Endowment to ensure the public of the care of the property. In doing so Hamden would be of great service to the people of San Francisco. That very day Hamden verified the viability of starting a new cemetery and made the decision to build what is now known as Cypress Lawn.
In 1892, Hamden Noble designed a beautiful garden cemetery after the grand garden cemeteries of the East Coast that would have an Endowment Care Trust to ensure that the beauty of this grand remembrance called Cypress Lawn would continue forever.
Today, Cypress Lawn is that beautiful garden memorial, a thing of beauty forever perpetuated by the largest Endowment in Northern California. Cypress Lawn continues to be the premier provider of remembrance services that has added a new funeral home, cremation, reception and flower shop facilities to offer complete remembrance services to the families of San Francisco and the surrounding Bay Area communities.
Cypress Lawn has also expanded from the East and West Gardens to  the new Hillside Gardens with Cypress Lawn signature archway, lakes and fountains, thereby, fulfilling Hamden Noble’s promise for Cypress Lawn that in the fullness of time, Cypress Lawn, will form an extensive park, rich in foliage, flowers, statuaries and other works of art, a handsome gift to prosperity.