sweet auburn | 2024 volume i
Joe Bancewicz
Crematory Cowboy Retires After 45 Years
By Corinne Elicona , Education & Digital Content Manager
M ost people aren ’ t eager to visit crematories . Often , they ’ re sterile , colorless places that operate quietly and efficiently so as to not draw attention to their solemn work . But when Crematory Manager Joe Bancewicz invited me to tour the facility in Bigelow Chapel during my first week as an intern in 2016 , I beamed with excitement . I was a college student working a summer internship filing cremation paperwork in the Administration Building and my curiosity about this ancient practice had been thoroughly piqued as I flipped through decedent cards , transported urns to Mount Auburn ’ s vaults , and discovered a whole world of care for the dead that had previously been out of view .
Joe must have noticed my curiosity and recognized it , and I ’ m thankful that he did . In due course , I received my crematory operator certification and began
“ Joe was a key part of the Mount Auburn training with him . He team for the entire 28 years that I would tell me stories was there ( and he started many years from his past , give earlier and stayed longer !). In 2013 I me pointers on how had the pleasure of presenting him with to best operate the the President ’ s Award when I recognized equipment , and teach him for his loyalty , creativity and me empathetic lessons superior performance .[...] Thanks for in caring for the being such a great team player Joe ! bodies of those who
Best wishes in retirement and enjoy could no longer care those grandkids !” for themselves .
— David Barnett , President Emeritus
To me , these trainings were special days that changed my view of the world and of life and death every time I stepped into his office . To Joe , it was the work he had been doing for over 25 years .
Joe ’ s career at Mount Auburn didn ’ t start in the crematory but rather with a broom and a dream of a truck patrolling the grounds . “ It was right after the blizzard of ’ 78 ,” he recalls as we sit together in his office .
His supervisor , “ Butch ,” once told him , “ I remember seeing you come in the gate with the chains on your wallet , long hair , and cowboy boots , driving a truck – and I looked at my guys and said , ‘ Who IS this ?’” Despite first impressions , Joe was quickly put to work , broom in hand , sweeping piles of sand left over from the blizzard from the grass to the road for removal .
“ I swept for about three weeks straight , from the front gate all the way to the greenhouse . A couple of times during the day , a truck would come by with a bucket on the back that they would lower . I would shovel the sand that we swept in piles into the back of the truck , and I remember saying to myself , ‘ I will drive that truck someday .’”
As Joe recounts this story , I think of a movie plot where a lowly trainee is given a menial task , wondering when the day will come when he can move up in the ranks . So , as it follows … outfitted in his cowboy boots , shovel in hand , Joe wondered when his day would come to mount his noble steed . In this case , a 1978 “ load-lugger ” truck .
Joe tells me that he almost didn ’ t get hired full-time at Mount Auburn . That spring he and his fellow seasonal worker were both vying for only one open full-time position , and Joe with his unorthodox aesthetic was not on the favorites list . On Memorial Day weekend , however , his coworker was assigned to help with the overflow of work at the greenhouse but nocall no-showed to his shift . The manager ’ s favor shifted to Joe for the full-time position .
Joe ’ s fascination with trucks and heavy machinery eventually led him to other work on the grounds with the irrigation and interment crew . He received his backhoe license and expressed interest in learning how to do cremation work as a backup crematory operator .
“ I was always willing to learn different things . And whatever was asked of me to do , I would do . For the longest time I was chief sprayer here . There wasn ’ t one piece of grass that I haven ’ t sprayed on these grounds […] as well as working irrigation and interment – driving that truck that I said I was going to drive .” Joe was truly a cemetery renaissance man .
In the early 1990s , Joe was promoted to Interment Supervisor , a position he held until 2000 . By that time , he was ready to move on from a job that put him outside digging , whatever the weather might be . After the former Crematory Manager , Walter Morrison , retired , Cemetery management asked Joe if he would be willing to manage the crematory – an opportunity that Joe eagerly accepted .
Before the crematory ’ s reconstruction in 2018 , the cremation chambers ( also known as retorts ) had not been updated since 1970 . They were slow , inefficient , and had no temperature gauges or computer controls , so Joe needed to operate every individual cremation “ by feel .”
As we sit in his office together , I ask Joe if he had any clue when he walked through Mount Auburn ’ s entrance gates at 21 years old , that he would stay there for 45 years . He chuckles a bit , gives me a quick “ No ,” but then ponders the question a bit more .
“ Well … I didn ’ t think I would be here 45 years later . I didn ’ t even know if I would live that long . But I did have a feeling that this was my home . That this was where I was going to stay .”
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