For 20 years, Mark Smith was a near-constant presence at the historic Salt Lake City Cemetery, where he served as its 31st and longest-serving sexton.
He was often the first one in each day at the old caretaker’s house he’d renovated into an office. After drinking coffee on the porch and watching the morning sunlight filter through the trees, he’d get to work managing operations, budgets, staffing, customer service and more for the 120-acre cemetery tucked in the Avenues neighborhood in Salt Lake City. As the sun began to set, he was usually the last one out the door — even after he was diagnosed with cancer in 2016.