Maximizing the Moment
by Mark Miester

After an hour reflecting on his personal philosophy and psychology, Frank Stewart concludes that there is really only one rule of life: "Maximize the moment."

"Time is the only asset in life that you can't buy at any price from anyone," he explains. "Therefore, your only responsibility, having been given the gift of time and having been given the gift of existence, is to use all your gifts to their maximum and best use at all times."

Frank B. Stewart Jr. (BBA '57) has maximized more than a few moments in his life. As the major stockholder of Stewart Enterprises Inc., the third-largest provider of death care services in the world, Stewart is chairman of an organization that owns and operates almost 700 funeral homes and cemeteries in 28 states of North America and in South America, Europe and the Pacific Rim. The tiny family business founded by his grandfather in 1910 now employs almost 10,000 people and generates revenues in excess of $600 million annually.

The business has been good to Frank Stewart, but it means much more to Stewart than just business. To Stewart, his vocation cuts to the heart of the human experience--the quest for meaning in life. "I've never met a successful person who deep down inside didn't have a burning desire to leave a footprint by which to be remembered as having been significant," Stewart says. "Significance takes on different meanings to different people. It doesn't necessarily mean wealth, power or importance. To me, it means just to have had meaning. When I came to learn this, we applied it in a lot of different ways. Our job is to serve people in fulfilling their desires."

Seated at a conference table in the Metairie, La., headquarters of Stewart Enterprises, the 63-year-old New Orleans native often sounds more like a theologian than an executive as he discusses his career. That is not just a coincidence. A profoundly spiritual man, Stewart readily admits that a lifetime in the death care industry has led him to reflect on life, death and the hereafter in much greater depth than the average person. For the past 40 years, Stewart has embarked on an annual trip to Manresa Retreat House in Louisiana for a weekend of silence, prayer and meditation. The success of Stewart Enterprises is in many ways a direct result of those weekends, time spent developing and refining beliefs that ground his personal, spiritual and professional life.

According to longtime friend Carroll Suggs, chairman of Petroleum Helicopters Inc. in New Orleans, Stewart has always maintained high standards in all three aspects of his life. "Frank is committed to excellence," she says. "His enthusiasm for his business and for his people is an example for all of us to follow. In his friendships, he wants you to feel good when you visit with him, and he wants you to feel that you've had a good experience. He's a very special person. If I had a list of 10 people who were always going to be there for me, Frank would certainly be on that list."

Darwin Fenner, president of Fenner & Williams Investments and Management Co. and a member of the Stewart Enterprises board of directors, notes that uncompromising ethical standards are a hallmark of Frank Stewart. "His ethics are strong, and they're the right kind of business ethic," Fenner says. "When he tells you he's going to do something, he's going to do it. You can depend on him. That's the type of people I like to do business with and, I think, most people like to do business with.

"A lot of the companies Stewart Enterprises has purchased wanted to sell out to Frank and not to his competition," Fenner adds. "That's out of the respect and trust they have in Frank."

The story of how the Stewart family entered the death care industry touches on one of Frank Stewart's favorite topics. "Fate," he says, "is being in the right place at the right time. In life, when one recognizes fate, one then has to accept the gifts that have been given--opportunity, timing, health, education, wealth or anything else--and maximize their uses."

The year was 1910, and Albert Stewart, Frank's grandfather, was president of Acme Realty Co. when a client of his, in lieu of payment, deeded him a parcel of land. It was not just a parcel of land, however. Also included were two entities that sat on the property--the St. Vincent de Paul Cemeteries and the St. Vincent de Paul Marble Shop, which built monuments for the cemetery.

Try as he might, Albert Stewart was unable to find a buyer for the cemeteries, but he eventually reconsidered the marble shop's potential. Albert decided to hold on to the cemeteries and operate the marble shop, which had a built-in market for its wares, thanks to the cemeteries.

In 1931, Albert's sons, Frank Sr. and Charles, incorporated the growing memorialization business as Acme Marble & Granite Co., a division of Acme Realty Co., and began to compete in earnest with other shops in town for citywide memorialization work.

"That's how the business evolved," Stewart says, "not by a vision or pursuit but by fate, by being in the right place at the right time. My grandfather wanted to sell the cemeteries, but he couldn't; so he had to operate them, and he was forced into a business in which he ended up making ends meet."

Frank B. Stewart Jr. was born in New Orleans in 1935. An Eagle Scout as a youth, he attended Jesuit High School and Tulane University, where he served as vice president of the student body and as president of Alpha Tau Omega fraternity. After two years of active duty as a naval officer following his graduation, Stewart returned to New Orleans in 1959 to join the family business. Two years later, he married Paulette Elisabeth de la Vergne. The couple eventually had two children Trey and Betty, both Tulane graduates.

In 1959, the company was still known as Acme Marble & Granite Co., but the business had expanded its operations to include memorial development of community mausoleums, commercial stone work, the operation of a wholesale granite plant and the development of cemeteries. Despite the growth, Acme Marble & Granite, the core company, was still a modest operation. When Frank came on board in 1959, the company boasted a grand total of 15 employees and annual revenues of less than $400,000.

In 1966, Frank Stewart Sr., who had a history of heart trouble, died at the age of 55. The 31-year-old Frank Jr. became president and CEO of the company, which by then had grown to almost 100 employees and $2 million in annual revenues.

Far from shrinking in the face of his new responsibility, Stewart wasted no time shaking things up. He brought outside managers into the family-operated company for the first time and gave them equity incentives to help grow the business.

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