R. L. Waltrip

Overview

Mr. Waltrip is the founder and Chairman of the Board of SCI. He has provided invaluable leadership to the Company for over 41 years. A licensed funeral director, Mr. Waltrip grew up in his family's funeral business and assumed management of the firm in the 1950s. He began buying additional funeral homes in the 1960s and achieved significant cost efficiencies through the "cluster" strategy of sharing pooled resources among numerous locations. At the end of 2007, the network he began had grown to include more than 1,700 funeral service locations and cemeteries. Mr. Waltrip took SCI public in 1969. Mr. Waltrip holds a bachelor's degree in business administration from the University of Houston.