When Important People Die, He’s There

Robert M. Boetticher Sr. is the chief executive of a boutique death services firm that contracts with the federal government for state funerals. Most recently he was seen on television pushing the casket containing the late President George Bush into the back of a Cadillac at his memorial service. Surprisingly, the planning for such a service begins almost as soon as a president is elected. But the company, L.H.T. Consulting Group, a subsidiary of Service Corporation International, does not deal solely with presidents; Mr. Boetticher has also assisted at services for Senators John McCain and Edward M. Kennedy, as well as the Rev. Billy Graham and the actress Farrah Fawcett.

Mr. Boetticher showed an aptitude to be funeral director after an exam at the young age of 18, and purchased his first funeral home in Wyoming after leaving the Army. He joined SCI in 1983 and eventually moved to the company’s headquarters in Houston. There he managed the development of a new embalming fluid and became president of S.C.I.’s museum of funeral history. He also advised on “Six Feet Under” and played an undertaker in a mini-series starring Sally Field.

But in 2002, he received the unique call to perform President Ronald Reagan’s funeral. He helped the family select the solid mahogany Marsellus Masterpiece coffin and even pressed the American flag that was draped over it. He oversaw the embalming and the procession. It was “very humbling” to escort the president’s body, Mr. Boetticher said. Since then, he has been the man to call whenever a president is on the “brink of death,” from Reagan to Ford to Bush. 

See Emily S. Rueb, When Important People Die, He’s There, New York Times, May 15, 2019.

Special thanks to Joel C. Dobris (Professor of Law, UC Davis School of Law) for bringing this article to my attention.