LEADERSHIP FOR MONTE VISTA

A. C. “Clarence” Sherwood, Jr. was appointed manager of Monte Vista Burial Park in 1939 and retired in 1972.  During his tenure at Monte Vista, he transformed the cemetery from being a neglected rural country burial site, into a modern, intentionally designed Memorial Park. It featured a mausoleum, refined sculptures, artistic statues, including a lake with a colored-light fountain that attracted many to the tranquil, park-like natural surroundings.

Mr. Sherwood advanced the original one-room, one-employee business into a modern, self-sustaining operation developing an office staff to handle the financial and organizational aspects of the business.  He created and trained a sales force that utilized audio-visual sales materials (slides and pre-recorded cassette tape with background music) that he developed and were considered very innovative for the 1950s. It allowed the sales people to have an attractive invitation into homes for a travelog-style presentation. (Detail: the background music was soft but uplifting church hymns played on the pipe organ.  Instead of the proverbial filmstrip “beep” to change slides, the organist played a harp arpeggio in the harmony of the hymn chord where the slide change was to occur. It was performed and taped live (taped by Mr. Sherwood himself) with the narration being spoken and a director visually signalling the organist for each slide change– all innovative for that era, especially without involving professional sound engineers and a recording studio.)

Mr. Sherwood also hired a grounds maintenance foreman and provided the work crew with mowing equipment and modern tractors (as the graves had previously been hand-dug).  Many of the crew were from very poor families in the area, and Clarence offered care and support in their times of need.

He also offered compassionate support for families who had just lost a loved one and who had to make difficult decisions about funeral arrangements.

His compassion came naturally, having grown up as the son of a second-generation Baptist minister:  he was inclined towards sharing from his large family and scarce resources. His lifelong love of music and his avocation in photography was used to document aspects of the cemetery both on the ground and from the air.

He had commissioned renowned memorial landscape architect Carlisle Butler to help realize his vision of a modern memorial park. Together they crafted the master plan for the cemetery to be divided into sections, where each garden depicted a portion of the Christian Bible – from the Garden of Light to the Garden of the Cross.  He designed and managed the building of the 1969 Chapel and Mausoleum which is adjacent to the lake area.

He had the foresight to create a Perpetual Care Fund, which at its peak reached over $1 Million (equivalent to over $30 Million in today’s dollars) to prevent the grounds from ever falling into disrepair to which so many cemeteries succumb.

He collaborated with over a dozen community church ministers to establish the yearly Easter Sunrise Service which, at its peak, attracted over 600 attendees. Mr. Sherwood was also an early adopter of the concept of networking. He was involved in many aspects of the Johnson City community, and was also an active member of various professional associations, including several terms as the president of the Cemetery Association of Tennessee. He was instrumental in having Monte Vista join multiple professional associations including  the American Cemetery Association, the National Association of Cemeteries (in which organization he served on the membership committee), Southern Cemetery Association (in which organization he served as a director) , and Cemetery Association of Tennessee

Satisfied that he had  brought the cemetery well into the 20th century, he retired in 1972 (while continuing to consult) and passed along management to Bill Staten, who had previously served as the secretary/treasurer for two decades.

HALL OF FAME CITATION FROM CEMETERY ASSOCIATION OF TENNESSEE (1975)

Arthur Clarence Sherwood, Jr. was born in Grainger County, North Carolina, the son of Arthur C. Sherwood, a native Virginian, and Virginia Shull Sherwood, a native North Carolinian.     Arthur C. Sherwood, Sr., like his father, J. J. L. Sherwood distinguished himself in his Christian ministry through his Baptist church..  The education of A. C. Sherwood, Jr included attending high school in Erwin, Tennessee, followed by one year at Wingate Junior College. He graduated from Furman University as a pre-medical student in 1929. While at Furman, he continued to distinguish himself by his participation in various musical activities: in Furman’s Concert Band, the Glee Club Orchestra, and three years each in the marching band and Glee Club.
After graduation, he went to Wewahitchka, Florida, as a teacher and assistant principal in the public school system of Gulf County, Florida, where he served for a year.  He then served as bookkeeper for the Erwin National Bank for a period of about a year and a half. He left the bank to work for Personal Finance Company in Johnson City, Morristown, and Knoxville. He left the finance company to return to teaching in Erwin, teaching chemistry and English in the Erwin High School and Elm Street Elementary School. After that, he worked as a salesman for Metropolitan Life Insurance Company in Johnson City for about four and a half years, after which he was employed by the Tennessee State Employment Service. In May of 1939, .he went to work for Monte Vista Burial Park and remained there until his retirement in 1972.
Under the leadership of Mr. Sherwood, Monte Vista joined the American Cemetery Association, the National Association of Cemeteries (in which organization he served on the membership committee), Southern Cemetery Association (in which organization he served as a director) , and Cemetery Association of Tennessee (in which organization he served as President, Secretary-Treasurer, and Director). He took full advantage of the conventions, seminars and schools offered by the
various associations in which Monte Vista held membership and he applied what he learned to the operation of Monte Vista. Under his leadership, Monte Vista was the first to offer the community the facilities of a modern garden-type, perpetual-care cemetery.
Also under his leadership, Monte Vista pioneered in offering mausoleum facilities in the community. With the assistance available from the various professional associations together with the consulting services of various experts in the field, He contributed substantially to making Monte Vista a leader in the interment field in its area. In 1936, Clarence married Jane Harris, the daughter of Montgomery Harris and Sarah Gildersleeve Harris. Jane died in 1974. They reared three children: Sarah Jane Sherwood Litchfield, wife of Dr. L. H. Litchfield, pastor of Azalea Baptist Church, Norfolk, Virginia; Dr. Arthur M. Sherwood, Assistant Professor of Bio-engineering at Texas A&M, College Station, Texas, and consultant to Baylor University School of Medicine and Rehabilitation, Research and Medical Center at Houston, Texas; and William Henry Sherwood, a 1975 graduate of Carnegie-Mellon University, with B. S. and M. S. degrees in electrical and computer engineering. Will is an excellent concert musician and director, being proficient in both the pipe organ and piano. After college, he joined Digital Equipment Corporation (DEC), Maynard, Massachusetts..
Mr. Sherwood had been a member of the Rotary Club in Johnson City, Tennessee, and the Central Baptist Church there. He had served his church as a Sunday School teacher, a Deacon, and Chairman of the Board of Deacons.