He’s tired, and soon to be “retired” but he certainly isn’t in need of a stone just yet.
Dale Powers, dis trict manager and longstanding Plain view businessman, has announced his intention to retire after 49 years at Plainview Monu ment, and service to this community and greater north- east Nebraska, and has already started introducing his successor that will carry on the tradition of service to area families.
Kristina Todd will “ officially” take over on Oct. 1, after starting Aug. 1, and learning the business with Pow ers, continuing the 133-year tradition of Plainview Mon ument Company serving the community and area.
Powers came to Plainview to work for the Ashburn Funeral Home around 1976 as a funeral director under “Nemo” Ashburn, and was encour- aged to pick up some hours selling monument stones at the Plainview Monument Company working for Glen Einspahr, who owned the busi ness at the time.
What started then as temporary became a cornerstone for what Powers has worked to turn into a statewide and regional company, with international purchasing, national shipping and delivery and multiple locations.
“I wanted to buy the monument shop, and went to seven banks, got turned down by them all," said Powers. He returned to Plainview, and relayed the story to Ashburn, who encouraged him to visit Orchard where the Funeral Home had a second location and a relationship with the bank.
The bank there did promise to fund Powers' venture, but he was short $5,000 that was required to make the deal a reality. He told that to Ashburn, and went home disappointed, but when he returned to the office in the morning, there was a "stack of $100
bills, $5,000 on the table right there” that Ashburn had put together to help finance the purchase.
That relationship built a generational friendship with the Ashburn Funeral Home, and together, the two companies cared for Plainview and area families during their time of loss.
Those relationships are all still at the forefront of his mind, as Powers could immediately tell the first stone he had worked on for Ralph and Stella Miller, and his extensive files of sales slips, computer files of designs and stories to tell.
"We've always been here to help take someone from grief into finding something they love," said Powers about helping not just customers, but friends, family and neighbors in picking a memorial that fits each individual.
Starting carving by hand, with a lot of work done in-house, the Plainview Monument Company went through a lot of changes while Powers was at
the “chisel” as well.
He said he's always enjoyed art from carving a stump in his parents front yard to his years at Albion’s high school, he turned his lifelong interest into a career for near 50 years. That career has created one of perhaps the most well-known names in the business, and added to Nebraska Memorials with two cutting locations and dealers from Sterling, CO, to Garden City, KS, and 11 locations in Nebraska.
What used to take a steady hand, know-how and a lot of patience and skill has now trans ferred to mainly computer-assisted cutting and engraving with diamond saws and tipped engravers, but that doesn’t change the drive of the people behind the machine of the age.
Powers has a number of photos of the original Plainview Monument
Company hanging in the shop on Highway 20 in the former Dick Grace auto dealership building all of the original Monument Company, which was approximately where Plainview Telephone’s shop building sits today.
The stones came out westward from the shop that was set back in the lot, and a photograph of the original owners R.J. Jewell, who passed the business to his son, Elmer. They eventually sold to Elsie Bishop, who then sold the business to Mr. and Mrs.
Ernest Lofgren. In 1974 Einspahr, a Creighton businessman, purchased the company, and passed it to Pow ers in 1978.
With thousands of pounds of granite passing through the Monument company over its history in the community, Powers credited moving onto the highway as one of the best decisions made during his ownership.
DALE POWERS RETIRES AFTER 40 YEARS The Dick Grace auto dealership was on its way to closing and the building was being held by the Small Business Administration. Powers and a local attorney (who also recently “retired”) made the SBA an offer, and somewhat to their surprise, the offer was accepted, allowing the company to move into its present day location.
“People would drive by every day, every year, and at the right time, they’d remember us when they needed a stone,” said Powers.
And, much like their necessity, those stones themselves have varied very little since the olden days of carving them by hand with chisel and hammer.
Granite has been Powers’ stone of choice for monuments, memorials, plaques and veterans settings, and though other rock exists for the purpose, he said the quality of the stone, density and durability of granite cannot be matched, though marble or other stones may be a stand-out color.
The showroom at the Monument Company in Plainview serves as a testament to granite – with colors, and shapes and sizes that come from across the globe to Plainview.
Blue granite from Norway is the most rare and expensive, black granite from India is the hardest to get and ship and polish, and brown and red granite from South Dakota tops the list for most folks around the area.
Powers said that granite veins are found all over the world, and because of the nature of their creation, they’re all different colors, variety and rarity as well.
Alongside his knowledge of rock – which also happens to be his longtime hobby, including the collection of ancient arrow heads – his knowledge and acceptance of the “digital age” has helped move the company forward over the last 40-odd years.
Where artwork on stones used to be held by the best of artists and chisels, and is still sometimes hand-drawn and etched by hand onto stones in delicate or specific cases now the Monu ment Company has an exhaustive library of digital files, manipulated in a “Computer Aided Design” or CAD program to meet the needs of clients.
A lifelike version of a beloved tractor, a former resident looking out the window of his Cadillac, scenes of farmstead and homesteads, sunrises and sunsets, beaches, cutouts of states and polished inlays that look like completely different kinds of rock are all in the company’s reach now.
Mistakes do happen, there is a “graveyard of gravestones” to that testament behind the building, but they can be from rock flaws, breakage – but are all driven by Powers’ perfectionist eye for giving his customers something they’re enchanted with.
“We can do a lot of stuff we couldn’t do before,” said Powers – what used to take 30 minutes to cut a hole in a stone by hand, now takes about 45 seconds for a laser-guided, diamond-tipped drill operated by a computer-assisted machine.
As with many trades, however, the eye of the professional makes all the difference, and that’s what has led Powers to become a regional name in monuments, helping organizations, tribes, the government, families and individuals with their memorials.
He worked on a $600,000 memorial park in Hartington that took a number of years to complete – he developed and created the war memorial for the Isanti Dakota tribe in Nebraska with life-size engravings of historical and current tribal heroes – and he’s done countless favors and specialty jobs that were considered invaluable by those receiving his services in Oakland, Niobrara, Pierce, Randolph, Ewing and many more.
Powers and his staff have “camped out” with a mobile engraving station – hand cutting hundreds of names in veterans memorials and etching dates on stones they had placed, sometimes, years before.
One local pastor stuck out as a friend, and a tale – asking Powers to help, and usually “donate,” glass engraving in a few local churches. When the pastor found out his own life was coming to a close, he visited Powers again, and asked for a specialty stone, engraved with “I told you I was sick.”
When asked why his particular mindset didn’t push him to an even 50 years in the business, he said he did think about it, being particular, but after 49 years working, “I’m tired” was the only explanation needed.
As mentioned, he’s tired, and soon to be retired, officially turning over the mantle to a new District Manager, Kristina Todd, a family friend (introduced elsewhere in this edition) – but with perhaps thousands of memorials across towns, counties and states, the legacy of Powers’ work will continue doing its job, comforting those in need and memorializing those whom he helped.
A special open house event has been planned for Powers’ retirement, on Oct. 3 from 2 p.m. to 5 p.m. with more details in coming weeks.
Todd, and Powers for the time being, can be reached at the Plainview Monument number, 402-582-3333, or via the Nebraska Memorials or Plainview Monument Company website at www.themonumentpeople.com.
