Robert L. Waltrip, a Houston philanthropist who founded Service Corp. International — North America's largest provider of funeral services — and helped create the Lone Star Flight Museum and the National Museum of Funeral History, has died. He was 92.
A cause of death was not provided.
In a statement, SCI said Waltrip, born in 1931, grew up in his family's funeral business, often riding with his father, who owned Heights Funeral Home, during processions.
The Heights Funeral Home was a financial wreck in 1951 when Waltrip, then a junior at Rice University, took over after his father died. His father, Robert E. Waltrip, was a funeral director in Houston and had bought the funeral home in the 1920s from a friend facing financial trouble. When the younger Waltrip took over, he had a pile of unpaid bills and plans to expand.
With multiple funeral homes in Houston, Waltrip reasoned, he could send the staff and hearse wherever they were needed to keep them busy and hold down prices.
But first, he finished school at the University of Houston, graduating in 1953 with a bachelor's degree in business administration, a year after marrying his wife, Claire Holly. He returned to the family business, managing and directing daily operations for Heights Funeral Home, and soon acquired two more funeral homes in Houston at a time when few funeral directors owned more than one.
PROFILE: He's the elder statesman of funeral giant SCI
In 1962, continuing to expand the business, Waltrip founded Service Corp. International, which operates more than 1,500 funeral homes and 400 cemeteries across the U.S., Canada and Puerto Rico, the company says, employing some 25,000 workers.
In this company there are a lot of accountants, lots of finance guys. He's the funeral director," said Michael Soper of Legacy Funeral Group, whom Waltrip mentored, in a 2016 interview. He said Waltrip reminded him and others: "Son, don't ever forget the reason the phone rang is because somebody's mama died."
In recent years, responding to the growing diversity of the Houston area, the company has invested in its Houston-area cemeteries to include Islamic gardens, for example, and red and black granite imported directly from China.
Among other philanthropic activities, Waltrip founded Houston's National Museum of Funeral History in 1992 and the Lone Star Flight Museum in 1985.
"He and his wife Claire were the heart and soul of our museum and as written on the front of our building, this museum is their legacy," said Doug Owens, president and CEO of the Lone Star Flight Museum, which relocated from Galveston to Houston's Ellington Airport in 2017.
"He was generous in times of our need and terrific counsel when it came to difficult decisions," Owens continued. "While his direction, help and influence over 32 years sustained us in both Galveston and now at Ellington Airport, we will always remember him as our friend. He was certainly mine and we will miss him."
In addition to holding a commercial pilot license, Waltrip was an avid rancher, developing a new breed of cattle, called Romangus, by breeding Angus cattle with Italian Romagnola cattle.
Waltrip was preceded in death by his wife, Claire, to whom he was married for 66 years. He is survived by three children: Robert L. Waltrip, Jr., W. Blair Waltrip, and Holly Waltrip, six grandchildren and eight great-grandchildren.
erica.grieder@houstonchronicle.com
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