Occupational indicators on stones are pretty uncommon. The careers that get recorded on stones most often are ones that change your title, such as doctors and military officers. Hands down, the most common occupation you will see noted on a tombstone is that of physician. But there are other people who really want you to know what they did when they were alive.
On the Samuel marker from Willoughby Village Cemetery, we find that Edward Samuel was a printer and Sidney Lehman (relationship to family unclear) was a professor. I’ve seen a few other professors, but Samuel is the first printer I’ve found so proud of his occupation that he put it on his tombstone.
Leonard Voorhies, educator, is buried in Euclid Cemetery.
Finally, we have The Honorable George E. Hoffer in Old Carlisle Cemetery.
I find this stone so compellingly interesting that I had to photograph it. It is very straightforward, no flowery language, just his title and name, birth and death years, two of his positions as a judge, and his wife’s name. His wife being listed after everything else deviates from the pattern I am used to seeing, which makes me wonder who designed and paid for the monument. Or maybe he requested it be this way…
A Grave Concern 