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How Dayton’s Go-To Gravedigger Does It Himself

Published on April 3, 2023

Learn about the life of Jim Lock, owner of Jim Lock Excavating in Dayton, Ohio, who has found his passion in gravedigging. With his fleet of Bobcat equipment, Jim digs almost all the graves himself for more than 20 cemeteries in the Dayton area. Discover how his line-up of Bobcat machines, all bought from the same company, have helped him grow his business and put up a lower bid than his competitors. Read on to find out how he was able to help right a historical wrong. 

Cemeteries aren’t necessarily known as great places to work. But if you ask Jim Lock, owner of Jim Lock Excavating in Dayton, Ohio, there’s nothing better than working a jobsite smack dab in the middle of a hundred headstones. 

“I might be 95 years old and still be digging graves,” says Jim. “That is just the way I feel about it.” 

Find Your Workhorse, Figure Out the Rest

You might be wondering how somebody gets their start in gravedigging. Jim will tell you it kind of happens by accident.  

“I got started only because I like digging and working outside,” he says. “So, I bought a Bobcat® excavator and started working right out of my house to do custom jobs for friends, neighbors, people like that — whoever came down the road and wanted some excavating work done.” 

When Jim bought his first machine 35 years ago, he went with a pre-owned Bobcat 610 skid-steer loader and followed it up with a pre-owned Bobcat 732 skid-steer loader. Of course, it didn’t take long for Jim to decide he needed a new one of his own. So, he bought a brand-new Bobcat 743 skid-steer loader only a few years later. 

“That is the best machine I have ever owned,” Jim said. “I bought it in the late ‘80s. I bought attachments, then I started doing digging, then I started really expanding.” 

With a workhorse like the 743, Jim was ready to tackle just about any job from any customer — including the church down the street that called him up, said their gravedigger was about to retire and asked if he could dig graves for them. Then another church needed a gravedigger, too. “Next thing I knew, I had so many cemeteries I was digging at that I couldn’t do customer work anymore,” Jim says. 

One Man and Five Bobcat Machines Is All You Need

Today, Jim works with more than 20 cemeteries in the Dayton area and digs almost all the graves himself. He has to do everything from the excavation for the burial plot to laying the foundation for the headstone without disturbing the surrounding plots. To navigate those tight spaces and move that much earth, Jim relies on a lineup of Bobcat equipment comprised of pieces that he says “all complement each other”: