He knows where he’ll rest, but it’s a work in progress

First of two parts.

At the top of Jerry Brock’s gravestone at Double Butte Cemetery in Tempe is a portrait, etched into the black granite, of a smiling young man.

Beneath that is an image of his alltime favorite car, a 1940 Ford Standard

Coupe — he had two in his lifetime — and the name of his favorite song, Jesse Belvin’s “Guess Who.”

A quote at the bottom says, “Most of my regrets are those I have caused myself. For those I have harmed, I sincerely ask for your forgiveness. God bless.”

What’s not there is a date of death next to his date of birth.

Brock isn’t dead yet. He’s planning ahead.

“I’ve been in Tempe almost all my life,” he said, “and when I die, I want to be buried here.”

This is his city.

He was 9 when his family moved to Tempe in 1949. He attended Tempe Grammar School but left school after eighth grade and worked in his dad’s salvage yard.

He started his own auto salvage business, sold it and opened an auto parts business, Brock Supply, building it into a international distributor.

At 81, he still works there.

Years ago, Brock read a story about how gravestones were changing. “Someday I am going to do that,” he decided. He bought a plot and, this year, had his gravestone installed.

The cemetery is on the National Register of Historic Places. The first recorded burial here was in 1888.

The edges of the roads have crumbled. Concrete curbing surrounding many graves has cracked.

Some markers are chipped and broken, the names and dates faded. Some have toppled onto the ground. One grave is marked only by a pile of stones.

“It’s in pretty bad shape,” Brock said. He wants to fix it up, but not just because he’ll be buried here. This place has a history.

Friday: Preserving a past