Ask us about there Garden of Remembrance - A Cremation Garden for the Modern Age
Oak Ridge Memorial Park is truly a special place. It is a registered non-profit perpetual care cemetery with a history all its own, spanning over 60 years.
Our belief is that every life is unique and deserves to be memorialized in a meaningful and dignified way. Our staff of caring professionals is dedicated to helping families preserve their family legacy through lasting memorial tributes crafted in granite and bronze.
As a non-profit, our goal is not to enrich some wealthy corporation. Our goal is to help your family by caring for the people you love and making sure that their memory lives on. Convenient to Knoxville as well as Anderson and Roane Counties, we offer a wide array of options including traditional ground burial, private estate mausoleums, community mausoleums, and countless modern options for families who chose cremation.
Everyone has questions. Here is a good place to start.
There are many aspects that set this Memorial Park apart from traditional cemeteries. A traditional cemetery doesn't usually offer much in the form of landscaping, features maintenance, or beautification, so they are typically thought to represent the finality of death.
A memorial park, however, is different. Our beautiful park-like setting with its spectacular views is vibrant, serene, and elegant. It is not a place of sorrow. Oak Ridge Memorial Park is a place of remembrance that was created to represent the beauty of life and to care for the families of East Tennessee.
Oak Ridge Memorial Park was founded in 1955 by Dr. Robert Ball, a renowned radiologist in Oak Ridge, Tennessee. Knowing there was not a local cemetery large enough to accommodate the large population that had come to the area for the Manhattan Project and ongoing government operations which would continue, Dr. Ball made an offer to purchase the property from the Department of Energy.
D.O.E. agreed to the purchase under the stipulation that the property could only be a non-profit, perpetual care cemetery. It had to be overseen by an unpaid board of directors, and that the cemetery could never be sold.
Dr. Ball assembled the first board of directors and formed the Oak Ridge Cemetery Association. Some of the first board of directors included notable Oak Ridgers such as:
• Richard Smyser - editor of the Oak Ridger
• Judge Roland Prince
• William Pollard - Executive Director of the Oak Ridge Institute of Nuclear Studies (ORAU)
• Arthur A Harris - UCNC Gen. Superintendent of Industrial Relations with Union Carbide
• Thomas E Lane
• Harley Patterson, Pastor of the United Church of OR
• Walter Smith
• Martin Kessler - Rabbi of the JCOR
• Robert L. Thomas - Pastor of the First Presbyterian Church of Oak Ridge
Although Dr. Ball was a renowned physician, he had a great deal of difficulty maintaining the large property that didn’t gain immediate traction in the community. By the early 1960’s, the Memorial Park was $20,000 in debt and Dr. Ball was known to mow and dig graves himself.
Things turned around for the cemetery in 1964 when Dr. Ball recruited Jim Duff, a young, talented, and experienced cemeterian. Mr. Duff had a vision of the cemetery being an actual memorial park with uniquely themed gardens and beautiful statuary. His plans were successful and thousands of East Tennesseans purchased cemetery property at Oak Ridge Memorial Park. Today, that $20,000 debt has been replaced with a perpetual care trust fund over $2,000,000 which grows every year. When Dr. Ball passed away, he was laid to rest in the garden which was named in his honor. Since 1955, over 10,000 people have been laid to rest in Oak Ridge Memorial Park.
Our fully staffed office is open Monday - Friday from 9AM to 4PM to assist your family with any needs you may have. We are also available during weekends by appointment for your convenience. Call or text (865) 483-6346 to schedule your personal consultation.
Our state-of-the-art memorial design studio allows your family to design, with us, a memorial marker as unique as the person for whom the tribute is being made. We can make changes in real time and you can view everything in high definition on a 60 inch screen to make sure everything is perfect.
Our goal is always to help you as you pay tribute to your loved one. In case of inclement weather, our beautiful chapel is available as a substitute for a graveside service.
Every space, memorial, monument, mausoleum, and every option we offer for cremation includes perpetual care. That means that we handle all of the mowing, trimming, mulching, paving, seeding, and general maintenance. We truly care about your memorial park, and you can trust us to make sure that it is properly cared for.
If you notice something we have not noticed that needs attention, simply let us know so that we can issue a work order. You'll never receive a bill, and you'll never be asked to help maintain the park. In fact, it's against our rules and regulations for you to do any maintenance at all. We take care of everything, so that you and future generations don't have to. No worries, Perpetual Care is always included.
The Memorial Park is quite a large place. One can only see a small portion of the park from the road in front. The entire property is 120 acres. Only half of that has been developed, with the remaining property entirely wooded. Of the property that has already been developed, there are thousands of spaces available. Our property backs up to the UT Arboretum, assuring a tranquil environment for decades to come.
