Ronald Reagan had ties to local funeral home
CITY — The last two men to see former President Ronald Reagan spent the weekend carefully preparing the 40th president’s body in a Santa Monica funeral home.
Funeral directors Bob Boetticher and Mike Ross dressed the former president and laid him into a solid mahogany casket to prepare him for a series of funeral events in California and Washington, D.C., which will conclude with a Friday burial at the Ronald Reagan Library in Simi Valley.
Gates Kingsley & Gates Moeller-Murphy, at Arizona Avenue and 20th Street, is one of the closest funeral homes to the Reagans’ Bel Air home. It’s also used frequently by the grieving families of Hollywood celebrities and high-profile political players. Reagan had personal ties to it.
2F2,“When the president returned to California he was asked to choose a funeral home, and this one fit the bill,” said Joanne Drake, a spokewoman for the Reagan family, who have grieved privately since the 93-year-old president died Saturday afternoon.
Gates Kingsley & Gates was founded in 1932. Mark Gates, son of the founder and later funeral home director, served as mayor of Santa Monica decades ago. His son was chairman of the 1970 Los Angeles County reelection campaign for Reagan as governor.
For Boetticher and Ross, the task of preparing Reagan was humbling.
“It’s a huge responsibility, and to be able to serve our country and our president, it’s the pinnacle for a funeral director,” said Boetticher, 57, a 39-year veteran in his line of work.
5EE,“It’s the pinnacle of our careers,” added Ross, 48, of Corona, Calif. “This certainly is the one that will stand out. I’ll take this experience to my grave.”
Gates Kingsley & Gates Moeller-Murphy is owned by a parent company that oversees more than 1,400 funeral homes across the country.
Reagan’s casket will remain sealed through a six-day series of funeral events that will conclude with a private interment service at the Ronald Reagan Library Friday evening.
Nancy Reagan and other family members are scheduled to accompany the casket from Gates Kingsley & Gates Moeller-Murphy to the Ronald Reagan Library in Simi Valley this morning. A private ceremony will be held, and Reagan’s casket will then be kept in the main lobby of the library from noon until Wednesday, so the public can pay respect. Reagan was a popular president, overwhelmingly elected to both terms, who specifically asked that the public be included in his funeral, Drake said.
Next, Reagan’s body will be flown from the naval base in Pt. Mugu to Andrews Air Force Base in Maryland. Ceremonies will held in the rotunda of the U.S. Capitol and the Washington National Cathedral before Reagan will be flown back and buried at the Ronald Reagan Library.
Though the Reagans haven’t spoken publicly since the passing of the former president, Drake on Sunday read a statement thanking the public for erecting makeshift memorials around the country and expressing their deep sense of loss. The passing was bittersweet for Nancy Reagan, Drake added.
520,“While it is an extremely sad time for Mrs. Reagan, there is definitely a sense of relief that he is no longer suffering and is in a better place,” she told reporters in a mid-afternoon Sunday press conference. Hundreds of well wishers and members of the media have camped out in Santa Monica since Saturday.
Tracy Akins, 32, a physical therapist who lives in Santa Monica, called Reagan a great man and said she was drawn to the site by early memories of his presidency.
“He’s the first president that I really remember,” Akins said. “I was 8 when he went into office — and just the fact that he was from California.”
Other members of the crowd came from miles away.
“He brought the country back from, as Jimmy Carter put it, the malaise we were going through at the time and made us feel good about being Americans again,” said Ron Preston, 44, of Northridge, who works for Sony Pictures. “He was my favorite — my favorite president.”
Bridal salon owner Laura Rubin agreed.
“He helped tear down the wall and bring democracy to the area,” said the 59-year-old resident of Marina del Rey. “We really felt good about being Americans under Reagan.”
Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on June 7, 2004. Read the original PDF.