Dettling Funeral Home

Waltrip maintains the gentle demeanor and attentive gaze of a hometown funeral director. He keeps the sitting area by his office fireplace tidy, storing stray papers under crystal glasses in a corner bar nook. But Waltrip's office is a 12th-floor penthouse overlooking Allen Parkway and the company he founded is a multibillion-dollar empire. Service Corporation International owns and operates 1,522 funeral homes and 468 cemeteries across the U.S. and Canada, where it commands a 16 percent market share. At 85, the now-chairman emeritus has turned over day-to-day leadership to others. But he still comes to SCI headquarters in Houston four days a week and says he has no plans to retire. He remains a central figure, sharing his sharp memories of markets and people with company executives. He advises them on who to trust based on deals he made or dropped across the decades. Few in the public would recognize Waltrip or know what the initials SCI represent. But within the industry, both are formidable and well known. "I don't know anyone in the funeral business who hasn't been touched by him in some way," said David Dettling, owner of Dettling Funeral Home on Memorial Drive. "His influence has been pretty spectacular for all of us, whether you love him or you hate him." Dettling made clear he's on team Waltrip, who he said inspired him to become a funeral director, which he did after leaving SCI in 2007. He'd worked at corporate headquarters in the 1980s and '90s on the referral of his grandfather, a retired police officer who got to know Waltrip as a funer...