'American Inventor' contestant holds his loved ones near

PATRICK SHELBY/Acorn Newspapers ROOM FOR EVERYONE-Local inventor Dan Gersten displays his mobile family plot prototype. In the 1990s, Agoura Hills resident Dan Gersten was doing well in life. Then the unexpected death of his wife, Nina, prompted him to change directions and pursue a dream that he had long ignored.

That pursuit landed Gersten on ABC's "American Inventor," a reality TV show on which inventors compete for $1 million and the chance to have their product made and sold.

In 1999, Gersten's wife, Nina, was diagnosed with primary brain cancer. Ten months later she died. "Nina passed away shortly after turning 51," Gersten said.

"One of the things I learned is that you really can't count on tomorrow and that if you have a dream, you should go for it today. And so here I had an idea with a patent, and I talked to people about it and they thought it was a great idea, but I wasn't doing anything about it."

Gersten heads a marketing and creative consultancy firm. He says he's a creative person, but so far the only one of his ideas that has materialized was a book he selfpublished called "Ask Curtis." Gersten said the book was written by his dog Curtis.

Gersten's invention-the idea he used in competition on "American Inventor"-is the Mobile Family Plot, an urn for the cremated remains of multiple entities-people, pets, or people and pets. It contains only a symbolic amount of remains; the rest can still be buried or scattered. The urn could hold keepsakes or heirlooms should remains not be available.

"It's a polygon, and the number of sides corresponds to the number of internal compartments that house a symbolic amount of cremated remains," Gersten said.

"The outside facings are intended to have a plaque about the size of a business card affixed to it that could either contain biographical information or an engraving, or a picture, or with today's technology it could have a recording of a voice or a bark, or eventually it could even have a video recording. It's similar to what might be a grave marker or a headstone," he explained.

At one time, generations of families lived together, Gersten said and generations were buried together. But the concept of home has changed and a family plot is no longer practical, he said.

"We live in a highly mobile society," Gersten said. Family members are scattered around the country and life's intrusions and demands can get in the way of paying one's respects at a loved one's grave.

With the ever-increasing trend toward cremation and the scattering of remains, is there even a place to go visit, Gersten asked.

" M y story is driven in part by the passing of a pet and the passing of my wife," he s a i d . Gersten's dog Frisco died in 1992.

" N o rmally they c r e m a t e the pet, and they give you a kind of tin box-nothing really great," Gersten said. "So I had Frisco's remains in this box on the mantle-kind of like in 'Meet the Parents'-and my daughter said to me, 'Gee, Dad, what are you going to do with Frisco's ashes?'

"And I said, 'I really don't know, but when I go, I'll be cremated and why don't you put Frisco's remains with me and then I'll be back with my dog?' And then I said, 'Anyone who wants to join us, come on in.'"

That was the genesis of the invention.

"I had to learn about cremation up close and personal-perhaps a little too close and too personal," Gersten said.

"One of the things I learned was that you can divvy up cremated remains. And so while most of (Nina) is actually interred at Pierce Brothers (Valley Oaks Memorial Park and Mortuary in Westlake Village), a good deal of her is also scattered about the country, and I have some that I fully well intend for my first urn that rolls off the a s s e m b l y line."

Gersten's daughter, who knew about his idea for an urn, called him with a suggestion.

"My daughter, who's an on-air radio personality in Providence, R.I., noticed across the wires-I guess an AP wire or something- that there was this show called 'American Inventor' and that there were auditions in seven cities, including Los Angeles, and that the one in Los Angeles was (the) next week," Gersten said.

"So I went to the website, downloaded the application, filled it out and the following week I went to line up out in Hollywood with about 400 other people all waiting to get a crack at their five minutes of fame or the grand prize of $1 million."

Gersten got on the show. "American Inventor" was created by "American Idol" judge Simon Cowell and debuted on March 16.

Gersten's idea captured 13th place. Judges told him he was ahead of his time.

"Of course, they couldn't really say the real reason. The real reason is that they weren't prepared in one respect to deal with the issue of death and dying, and celebrating the lives of departed loved ones . . . I'm not going to do very well against something used to prevent people from barging in on you when you're in a public bathroom stall."

"American Inventor" aired Thursday evenings on ABC. The show wrapped up last week. While Gersten didn't win the big prize, he's hopeful his idea will become reality.

"My wish is to partner with someone who will manufacture and distribute (the urn) for me," Gersten said.

He is writing an article about his urn for Cremations Magazine, and he will attend a national cremation industry convention this August in Florida to discuss the idea.

"The fame or whatever the show gave me is up to me to leverage or build off of," Gersten said. He's got several media interviews lined up, and a request to be on Oprah Winfrey's talk show.

The Mobile Family Plot is a patented product from Dan Gersten & Associates LLC, a marketing and creative agency in Agoura Hills.

For more information, visit www.mobilefamilyplot.com or e-mail Gersten at info@ mobilefamilyplot.com.

For more information about Gersten, visit his website at www.dangersten.com.