6/12/2001
HOUSTON, TEXAS—The parent company of Arrangeonline.com, publisher of the National Obituary Archive (NOA)™, announced today it has added two remarkably successful and multi-talented investor-entrepreneurs to its Board of Managers.
The parent company, Final Arrangements, LLC of Houston, said it had increased the size of the board to nine with the addition of T. Allen Walker of Plano, Texas, and Dr. James E. Drake of Williamsburg, Va., and London, U.K. Both men will serve as advisors to Arrangeonline.com.
Final Arrangements is a holding company that owns Arrangeonline.com and Continental Computer Corp., developer of the most popular software for managing funerals and funeral homes. Continental, a 16-year-old company based in Jonesboro, Ark., has modified its software to enable its 5,000 funeral home clients to upload obituaries to the National Obituary Archive™ with a single mouse click. The National Obituary Archive™ is the largest repository of obituaries and death records in the world.
Walker has an extensive background in technology development and business. He worked his way up from answering technical-support calls at DacEasy software to Chief Operating Officer and Divisional Vice President of the highly touted developer of accounting and business software. Having earned his BS in Computer Science, Allen ascended to Vice President of Customer Service, then of Research and Development before taking over full responsibility for strategic and operational aspects of the company, which he ran for three years as a division of the U.K.-based Sage Group, the world's leading supplier of accounting, payroll and business software to small and medium-size businesses. He left to become COO of Ibertech, Inc., which specializes in point-of-sale software for restaurants and the hospitality industry. He more than doubled the number of employees and nearly tripled revenues to $14 million in a year. Three years ago, Allen “retired” to his home in Plano to take care of the children, keep house and enable his wife to fulfill a lifelong goal of finishing college. While looking after the family and his investments, Allen acquired an abandoned jail in the old Victorian center of fast-growing McKinney, Texas, and turned it into a popular restaurant named Prison Bars and Grill, where patrons dine in the reconstructed comfort of a former jail cell. Allen is an active venture capitalist and an investor in Final Arrangements, LLC.
Dr. Drake was a vascular surgeon who went into private practice in 1977 in Jonesboro, home of Continental Computer Corp. Dr. Drake retired from active practice in 1981 to pursue his parallel interests in real estate investment, stocks, bonds and private placements. He has developed shopping areas, post offices and numerous apartment complexes. He and his wife of 27 years, Nikki, now divide their time between Williamsburg and London and pursue their interests in international travel, tennis and classical music. Dr. Drake is also an organist who has studied and performed in several cathedrals and churches throughout the United States and England.
Arrangeonline.com was launched in October 2000 to provide a single place on the Web where people can find and read the obituaries of their loved ones, regardless of where they lived or when the death occurred. The firm’s National Obituary Archive™ now contains nearly 50 million current and historical obituaries and death records, and hundreds of new obituaries are added daily. The venture has the exclusive endorsement of the National Funeral Directors Association and is the principal provider of obituaries to America Online (AOL Keyword: Arrangeonline or obituary).
In addition to Walker and Dr. Drake, the Board of Managers of Final Arrangements, LLC is composed of:
William S. Kilroy Jr. of Houston, CEO, Final Arrangements, LLC
Michael G. Fullington, Jonesboro, President, Arrangeonline.com and Continental
Nadine Smith of Houston, President of Final Arrangements and CEO, Arrangeoline.com
Elwood A. Freeman, Jonesboro, Co-founder, Continental Computer
Phil H. Hout, Jonesboro
Jesse Stafford, Jonesboro
Peter Seale, Houston
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