Tombstones to Silicon San Francisco Chronicle 08/01/98 by Carol Emert
		Talk about a cutting-edge business. V. Fontana & Co., a 77-year-old family-owned tombstone maker in Colma, has been a technological innovator for decades. Elio Fontana, the son of the company's founder, was the first stone cutter in California to replace hammers and chisels with a programmable saw, which used early computer technology in the 1950's. "Mark is an entrepreneurial guy," said Jed Hendrickson, a Santa Barbara memorial maker and president of the California Monument Association. "He looks for other avenues (of business) while some, such as myself, are content with what we're doing." At the same time, V. Fontana knows when to stick to the old ways. Mark Fontana makes holes in granite with a hand drill that was first used by his grandfather, company founder, Valerio Fontana, who immigrated to the United States from Italy in 1915. The shop's sandblasters and engraving machines are powered by a compressor Valerio installed when		he started the company in 1921. The powerful machine, which has never been repaired, sits in a back room of the company's workshop pumping air with loud, rhythmic thumps. Mark Fontana, 46, was an ambitious 27-year-old when he took over the business and decided to diversify beyond grave markers. That turned out to be a wise strategy since large, expensive tombstones went out of fashion in the 1980's. The growing popularity of cremation has also hit the grave stone industry hard, since cremated remains are often scattered, rather than buried. About 38 percent of Californias who pass away are cremated according to the Cremation Association of North America. Immigrants are first-generation families that maintain a tradition of large, impressive grave markers have helped counter the broad trend toward more modest monuments. A Japanese family, for example, will typically spend $10,000 to $12,000 on Go to Page 2