LARRY GENE CRATES

LARRY GENE CRATES of Arlington, OH died December 16, 2025 at the age of 82. A retired funeral director and embalmer since 2019, he began his career working and living at the Rutherford Funeral Home in Columbus prior to establishing the Crates Funeral Home in Arlington in 1968. Crates then purchased the Goff Funeral Home in Carey, which was sold in 1976 to purchase the Coldren Funeral Home in Findlay. In 1987, the Smith Funeral Home in North Baltimore was acquired and the three funeral homes became Coldren-Crates Funeral Homes. A graduate of the Cincinnati College of Mortuary Science, he served as a past president of the Ohio Funeral Directors Association, where he was instrumental in bringing trust funded funerals to Ohio.