Galveston man sets Guinness world record for longest grave digging career

Apr. 18—Allen McCloskey, 89, of Galveston, walked into the Young America Center United Methodist Church with a present in hand Sunday afternoon, fully expecting to celebrate his friend Chris Weaver's birthday.

But it was not Chris Weaver's birthday.

McCloskey found five long rows of tables lining the hall with nary an empty seat. There was a crowd standing in the back of the room. Weaver, funeral director at Murray-Weaver Funeral Home, stood in a far corner, his video camera on a tripod and pointed toward the confused McCloskey.

Judy McCloskey tried to guide her father to the lone seat at the front of the room. He wasn't sure why he was being directed there to face the audience. Had he even noticed his son, Dean, standing with the microphone?

It wasn't long after Dean McCloskey began speaking that his father started wiping away tears. That birthday party? It was a guise so Allen McCloskey, a quiet and humble man who just wanted to help people without any attention would come to a celebration in his honor.

Why were his family and friends celebrating?

Because Allen McCloskey had entered the "Guinness World Records" for the longest career as a grave digger at 70 years, seven months and 20 days.

A long career

Dean McCloskey wanted to honor his father in some way.

"It just kind of popped into my head, this crazy idea," he said. "I just wanted to do something to give back to the man who has provided so much for me and my brother and sister and the rest of our family for so many years and that he has given back to the entire community. It was just a way that I wanted to recognize him for doing so much for so many."

In 2020, he started compiling documents about his father's career and sent them to the "Guinness World Records." Their reply was "insufficient evidence."

The Guinness people wanted contracts. The problem was that Allen McCloskey's word was as good as a piece of paper. Everyone knew this so any contract was most likely a verbal agreement and a handshake.

Allen's McCloskey's grave digging career began on Aug. 28, 1952, right at the Young America Center United Methodist Church, when he dug the grave of a man named Joe Williamson.

For his first five years on the job, Allen dug all the graves using a shovel and pickaxe. Sometimes in the winter he would have to gather corn stalks and corn cobs and burn them to thaw out the frozen ground.

In 1956 or 1957, he bought his first tractor, a Ford 8N. He used that until the early 1970s when he bought a 580CK, a tractor he still uses today.

"I wouldn't say it is 'still going strong', but it is still going," Dean said during the ceremony.

Perhaps some of the most difficult moments in his career came when he dug his parents' graves, and in 2017, he dug his wife's grave. He had been married to his wife, Barbara, for 51 years. His children helped him with her grave.

"Dad has always been a very caring person and a very emotional person," Dean said. "That was a rough day. When we dug mom's grave that was probably the hardest thing we've ever done. That's not something I would wish on anyone."

In lieu of contracts, McCloskey gathered witness statements from those who worked with his father or could testify towards Allen McCloskey's efforts. Seven statements were sent to the Guinness people. Of those making statements, Duane Heins passed away July 25, 2021, and Dick Hyman, the man who gave Allen his first grave digging job, died on January 11, 2022, at the age of 101. In all, 39 documents were submitted to Guinness. The documents were on display, lining one full wall, Sunday.

Allen McCloskey averaged 1000 graves dug approximately every nine years from 1962, when he dug his 100th grave to 2002 when he dug his 4,000th. He reached 5,000 graves in 2013.

Today he has dug over 5,600 graves.

Grave digging wasn't Allen McCloskey's only job. He worked fulltime at Continental Steel. He retired from that career. He's still digging graves, however.

The scheme

"Dad's not exactly a social butterfly," Dean McCloskey told the audience as they awaited Allen's arrival Sunday afternoon.

To get him to the party, Dean had given Chris Weaver an invitation to his fake birthday party. Weaver mailed the invite to Allen. Dean and his sister, Judy, eventually "received" invitations as well.

Only a handful of people knew about Dean's efforts. He worried if too many people knew what he was doing they might approach his father and spoil the surprise. Or nothing would come of the attempts to get his father into the "Guinness World Records" and it would leave everyone feeling disappointed.

So he told just the people who supplied witness statements and his teenaged son, Cole McCloskey, who Dean said figures everything out.

Dean went so far as to unplug his father's phone Sunday morning, just in case someone couldn't make the event and called to congratulate him.

Judy McCloskey drove her father to the church. It was a quiet drive, she said.

During the entire trick, her father never suspected a thing. He was too busy trying to figure out why Chris Weaver would have a birthday party at Young America Center United Methodist Church. Weaver didn't have anyone buried out there, after all.

Allen McCloskey knows where everyone is buried.

A family celebration

Those in attendance wore name tags that included how long they had known Allen. There was 65 years and 55 years. Fifteen and 20 years. Some knew him longer. Some knew him less.

Weaver, one of the perpetrators of the ruse, had known Allen for 37 years.

"(He's) one of the most humble fellows I know, would do anything in the world to help anyone and he's the best grave digger in North Central Indiana," he said.

Weaver said that McCloskey had to be available at a moment's notice when needed for grave work and was always respectful to all of the families he served over the years.

"Everyone just really loves Allen," he said. "He has a huge heart and would do anything for anyone."

McCloskey's stepson, Joel Hargis, traveled from Florida alongside his son, Neal, to join in on Sunday's celebration.

"It's a great reason to be here and see family and celebrate a man who would never celebrate himself," Neal said.

Joel, a pilot who flew to Indiana Friday, called his stepfather a giver.

"(He) is probably the kindest, hardest working man you'll ever meet," he said. "You can't work next to the guy. Even at his age now, he'll work you into the ground."

"He's worked his whole life for this," said his granddaughter, Carley McCloskey.

Her sister, Courtney, said it was the first time the family had come together just to celebrate her grandfather.

"I'm excited to see how he takes it," she said. "He's had a really full life and I'm glad we can do this for him."

Sydney Sofronici came from Philadelphia to celebrate her grandfather.

"My grandfather is the hardest working person I've ever met," she said. "I think like my Uncle Dean said, we gather to mourn but we don't get to gather for many celebrations. But that we got to gather to celebrate him means a lot to me."

"I talk to people all the time and I tell them how hard of a worker my dad is," said Judy McCloskey. "The things he does for people, he doesn't expect anything in return. He just does it because that's the kind of guy he is and that is the kind of person I want to be and I want my kids to be."

She said she didn't think anyone in this day and age would ever aspire to break her father's record.

"No 18-year-old is going to say 'I want to break that record' and live to be 90 and be in as good of health as my dad is in to do it," she said.

The previous record was 68 years and held by Johann Heirich Karl Thieme of Aldenburg, Germany.

Judy McCloskey said she was proud of her father for the hard work he had done throughout his life and proud of her brother, Dean, who worked so hard to make the celebration happen.

"When he came to me and said 'I've gotten dad into the "Guinness Book of World Records"', I wouldn't have even thought of that," she said.

And Allen McCloskey, the social butterfly and world record holder, how did he feel when the ceremony was over?

"I feel like it's time to go home," he said.

But he said it with a smile, eyes swollen from tears and a long line of family and friends waiting to shake his hand.