Found: Getting his gravestone back

By Ally Balcerzak

Despite his childhood dream of becoming a firefighter, Steven Sloane always knew he was going to end up doing cemetery work. It’s the family business, and has been for the past four generations.

Sloane began his career at Oakfield Cemetery in Syracuse, N.Y., before going on to consult across the country. He then spent eight years living in Albany and New York City before coming back to Syracuse in 2008.

He came back to his hometown to take the assistant superintendent position at Woodlawn Cemetery on Grant Boulevard, but found more than a job by coming back. Thanks to his mother’s work as a crisis counselor, at a young age Sloane learned the value of helping others. Prior to leaving Syracuse, he coached a high school soccer team, and when he returned he contacted the coach he used to work with in hopes of finding another position. As luck would have it, that colleague helped Sloane not only find another coaching position, but also another way to give back. “Both my wife and I have wanted to be involved in the community in some way. So we’re now a Big Brother and Big Sister couple, with a young boy that we’ve been with for four years.”

As he looks back on his childhood, Sloane acknowledges that growing up on a cemetery is unusual. While most kids were restricted by fences in their backyards, Sloane had 250 acres to run around on, although some of his friends weren’t keen on coming over to join. Looking back, he says there weren’t many downsides to growing up on a cemetery. “The only other thing that really was a trauma is the fact that I, to this day, don’t like Halloween.”