Reagan Library Seeks License as Burial Spot

The director of the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library and Museum had to prove Friday that he can run a cemetery.

Library Director Mark A. Hunt said that he spent an hour and a half poring over a detailed state licensing exam for cemetery operators Friday because former President Reagan and his wife, Nancy Reagan, plan to be buried at the museum near Simi Valley.

“It’s a tradition with all of the presidential libraries for the president and the first lady to be buried somewhere within the library or close to the library,” said Hunt, who took over the director’s post last summer.

And the state Department of Consumer Affairs requires anyone overseeing a private burial ground--such as the Reagans’ hilly plot--to obtain a cemetery manager’s license.

Hunt said he studied “46 pages of very, very tiny type” in the state Business and Professions and Health and Safety codes to prepare for the exam, which he took Friday in a county office building in Alhambra.

He learned about everything from funeral laws and cremation to the thickness of mausoleum walls and the penalties faced by cemetery operators who fail to maintain their sites.

Hunt declined to discuss the Reagans’ funeral plans, saying the family is keeping those private.

But he said he should know within four to six weeks whether he passed the exam.