Final sale: Direct Cremations in Neptune offers farewells without the fuss
NEPTUNE - Being a funeral director was a calling for Jersey City native Robert DeSevo. And so was his 2020 launch of Neptune-based Direct Cremations LLC, a provider of simple and affordable cremation services that help bring comfort, closure, and peace of mind to families after a loved one’s passing.
“I went to high school with a friend whose father owned a funeral home in Jersey City and I saw how beautifully they serviced families and how highly thought of they were in the community,” recalled DeSevo, 77, an Ocean Township resident, of his first exposure to his chosen profession.
“We had several dentists, doctors and attorneys in our family, but when my father asked me what I was going to study in college, I told him that I wanted to go to mortuary school to be a funeral director,” DeSevo said. “It wasn’t what he expected, but he supported my decision.”
After securing a business degree from Rutgers University, DeSevo attended the American Academy McAllister Institute of Funeral Service in Manhattan and graduated with a degree in the principles and practice of funeral services in 1970.
Following a job at a funeral home in Jersey City, he went on to purchase a funeral home in Bergen County’s Ridgefield Park for the next decade, then worked for the state as an investigator for the Board of Mortuary Science and the New Jersey Cemetery Board, inspecting and checking facility licenses for the next 26 years, until an interesting new opportunity presented itself.
“Through the industry, I was friends with Jim Minchin, a licensed funeral director since 1962 and owner of the Minchin Funeral Home in Paterson,” DeSevo said. “He believed that over time, more and more people would opt for cremation over a traditional burial or entombment, and in 1970, he founded Direct Cremations and became a pioneer of this ‘new’ type of funeral service.”
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“Around 2010, I asked Jim if he would be interested in selling his business to me, and though he hadn’t been thinking about it, a couple of years later he agreed to sell it to me when he was ready to retire — all on a handshake,” DeSevo said. “My daughter Stephanie had just gotten her funeral director’s license from the American Academy McAllister Institute of Funeral Service in 2011 and established her own cremation business in Oradell, and I thought that buying his company would be a great opportunity for Stephanie, myself and our family.”
In 2014, “though he still had no target date to retire, Jim asked if Stephanie would cover his business south of the Driscoll Bridge,” DeSevo said. “By the time COVID hit in 2020 and many other funeral home operations found themselves unprepared to deal with the overwhelming number of cases they were seeing, Jim was finally ready to sell to us. He liked me and felt confident that we’d treat his business and family legacy with respect.”
“We officially purchased the company from Jim in June 2020, opened our registration in Neptune, and renamed it Direct Cremations LLC,” DeSevo said of the venture, which involved both his daughter and his wife, Susan.
“At the time, my son-in-law (and Stephanie’s brother-in-law), Walter Bilotta, was considering a career change and he ultimately secured his funeral director’s license from the American Academy McAllister Institute of Funeral Service as well and joined us in the company, making it a true family-owned-and-operated business,” DeSevo said.
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'Uplifting and less formal'
Three years later and working out of 1,500-square-foot offices in Neptune (with another office in Oradell), “we’re technically a funeral home, but we only provide cremations — no viewings or traditional funerals,” DeSevo said.
Priced at a fraction of the cost of a traditional burial, “even many wealthy clients opt for a direct cremation and a memorial Mass later, which is often a celebration of their loved one’s life over a dinner or, for example, a commemoration in which they scatter their loved one’s ashes over the ocean or another meaningful location,” he said. “Cremations give people more flexibility in how they want to honor and remember their loved one and we work with hundreds of grieving families every year.”
“Back in 1976, the rate of cremation was only 1% to 2%, but today 54% of funeral services involve cremation, and that number continues to grow,” DeSevo added of the trend toward this service.
“Over time, people have become more environmentally conscious,” added Bilotta, “and many families find that cremation allows them to do something uplifting and less formal in their own way.”
In terms of their process, “if a family contacts us in advance, we ask them to consider two types of services — a traditional funeral service (visitation) with cremation or a direct cremation (non-traditional), which is the only service that we provide,” DeSevo said.
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“Our flat, affordable fee includes all services (except death certificates) —from the first call of a death through to professional removal of the body, completion of all paperwork, and final disposition at the crematory," DeSevo said. "We offer a range of personalized urns to hold ashes or refer clients to other resources for their urn, and we can also put cremains in pieces of jewelry.”
“Some people don’t understand our process or what we provide, so we take the time to educate families from all over the state, from Bergen County to the Jersey Shore,” Bilotta said.
Among challenges, Stephanie DeSevo said working in the funeral industry is a calling that requires its professionals to possess a unique set of personality traits.
“Every day we’re helping grieving family members who are distraught and dealing with a huge loss, so we can’t have ‘off’ days,” she said. “We always remind ourselves what they’re going through and do our best to be compassionate and understanding of their situation and to establish a strong rapport.”
“We invest our energy in helping families get through a difficult time, and clients appreciate our compassion and calming demeanor,” Robert DeSevo agreed. “People want to deal with kind funeral directors and we always exceed their expectations.”
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Bringing comfort and ease
With DeSevo, his daughter and son-in-law all serving as licensed funeral directors and Susan DeSevo managing administrative tasks, the DeSevo family hopes to continue supporting other families by offering the option of direct cremations to those seeking them.
“Our philosophy is to provide professional service with integrity and courtesy,” Stephanie DeSevo said. “We take pride in listening to each family’s specific needs.”
“It’s rewarding that our interactions and process can help bring comfort to people and make things easier for them in their time of loss,” Bilotta agreed.
“We hope to continue providing outstanding service that takes stress off families during a very trying time in their lives,” Robert DeSevo confirmed. “Things can be very overwhelming and confusing when someone passes and it means so much when families tell us how simple and streamlined we made the process for them. Our goal is to make things as easy as we can for every family.”
Direct Cremations LLC
Location: 3316 Corlies Ave., Neptune
Phone: 908-433-1776
Owners: The DeSevo Family
Founded: 1970 (by former owner); purchased in 2020 by current owners
Website: directcremationsllc.com
This article originally appeared on Asbury Park Press: Direct Cremations in Neptune offers final farewells without fuss
