St. Patricks Cemetery opens endowment fund with Jackson County, LincolnWay Community Foundations

With five acres of land described as being “as picturesque as a park” and more than 800 gravesites, St. Patrick’s Cemetery in Delmar has attracted a lot of attention. Pioneering Hollywood sound technician Eugene Grossman, who grew up in Delmar, left a gift to the cemetery. Babe Ruth sent a check for the building of the associated church. And many local people have made gifts to ensure the site’s perpetual care. 

Gerry Farrell and the rest of the St. Pat’s Cemetery board members have decided to invest these gifts in an endowment fund created in partnership with the LincolnWay Community Foundation and the Community Foundation of Jackson County. Endowment funds hold principal in perpetuity and pay out interest annually, forever.

“Our investment will grow faster here than it will anywhere else,” said Gerry. 

Payouts will be used for cemetery maintenance, such as landscaping and care of aging headstones, or reinvested to grow the principal. St. Pat’s is 115 years old and is still active, with about five new burials each year. Most who are buried in the cemetery were local or were brought to Delmar to be buried with relatives. There are 51 service people laid to rest within its boundaries. 

“We’re not investing for our own good,” Gerry said. “It’s for the people who are buried in the cemetery, and for the children and grandchildren after us.”