Catering to Commercial Page 2
		Fontana enthusiastically described it as a "unique little town," full of shopping centers, banks, businesses and restaurants. Without exaggeration, he said, about 250,000 people pass through the town daily. Colma's historical society even conducts tours, which take visitors through the expansive cemeteries, and to V. Fontana to see how memorials are made. At V. Fontana, one of the West Coasts's few self-contained facilities, visitors see the company's four very-long-term employees busy cutting and polishing granite stones. Pete Masnada, a 35-year employee, has worked for three generations of Fontana men. Ray Ward has been with the company 26 years, and Ron DelCarlo and Russ Baker each have worked eight. "It's a great working atmosphere, and the guys will put in extra hours and do extra work to see that jobs are done right," said Fontana. "We actually check the work so often that virtually have no comebacks." Stonecutting is a skill that can be traced back at least six generations in the Fontana family. That is as far back as the church records in Italy go. Mark's grandfather began V. Fontana in		1921, catering to the Italian community and working hard to build a "good reputation for doing quality work on time," his proud grandson related. After World War II, Mark's father took over and operated the business by the same conservative principles and strategies. But changing times necessitated a new look at the firm's products and services. "Basically, the business was a monument company until I started running it," Fontana stated. "From what I understand, monument sales were the best until about 1945. After that time, cemeteries started imposing restrictions on monuments, so sales leveled off. And now, with many of the older ethnic generations dying off, the newer generations are not as inclined to want elaborate works of art for monuments anymore. So a lot of factors have whittled the industry down." Fontana fondly recalls early memories of helping his father with the business. At 14, he began around the shop, watching the men cutting the granite and sometimes helping to clean Go to Page 3