Sam Welller, founder of MAB and the Association of Burial Authorities (ABA) and a champion of memorialisation and the death care industry for more than 20 years, died unexpectedly on 12 June aged 69. The funeral was held on 28 June in the Dissenters Chapel of Kensal Green Cemetery, London W10.

Sam first forayed into the death care industry in 1984 when his public relations consultancy was asked by the National Association of Memorial Masons (NAMM) to raise the profile of memorial masonry in the UK. He founded and became the campaign director of the Memorial Advisory Bureau (MAB), since renamed the Memorial Advisory Board. For 12 years he headed MAB until his contract was not renewed at the end of 1994.

In 1993 he founded ABA, realising that support, information, advice and guidance was required by the numerous, but often overlooked, smaller burial ground providers just as much as the larger concerns. The result was practical, readily-available advice and training opportunities tailored for those who needed it.

He wrote the Guide to Management of Safety in Burial Grounds manual and put in place an on-going programme of \'Get Safe\' seminars for groups of the smaller burial grounds authorities. He organised many seminars with themes covering inscriptions and designs, vandalism and public safety, profitability and product liability. He was invited to become a member of the Burial & Cemeteries Advisory Group, making a substantial contribution to their deliberations, and was fully involved with the Department for Constitutional Affairs and the current Burial Law Reform programme. He had a significant input to the recently published Local Government Ombudsman Special Report on Memorial Safety in local authority cemeteries. Sam was also the author of The Daily Telegraph Guide to Funerals and Bereavement, recognising a need for clear, factual, unbiased advice and guidance through the minefield of what has to be done when someone dies, providing solutions for those who do not know the questions to ask.