The Times 11/29/93
by John Curry
COLMA -- The old hymn about the Rock of Ages suggests a solid foundation for humanity. The implication that rock is the most solid of all things man encounters is right on the button, with only some of its uses changing over the years.And as times change, so does Mark Fontana's V. Fontana and Co. monument works, a Colma landmark since 1921 at 7600 El Camino Real.Fontana, 41, is a fourth-generation stonecutter. His grandfather, Valerio Fontana, arrived in Colma from his native Italy in 1921 and established the business originally just off F Street, near where the Fontana factory now stands at Clark Street and F, across from the Italian Cemetery.There are an estimated 1.5 million bodies or ashes at Colma cemeteries. Mark Fontana can't even estimate how many Colma graves and crypts are marked by stones turned out by his family.Valerio Fontana passed the business on to his son, Elio, in 1945, with Elio Fontana turning it over to son Mark in 1979, when he retired."We realized that the business was changing," Mark Fontana said.He diversified into the other fields and now estimates that cemetery markers are only half his business volume.Indicative of the differences in modern demand from the time the original stonecutters set up their businesses close to the cemetries is that "There used to be 20 in Colma, now there are six," Fontana said.The Fontana office has a display of Valerio Fontana's original hand tools, which he used to painstakingly chip out every monument. Today's specialized pneumatic and electric saws, drills, cutters and polishers are a night-and-day difference.There are thousands of styles of grave markers, large and small, that range in price from a few hundred to many thousands of dollars.But the real challenge in today's world is to give customers what they want.Go to Page 2
