HUDSON — The Hudson city cemetery, off North Maple Grove Avenue, is tucked between the high school and Cadmus Road. Mature maples and oaks shade the grassy expanse, where grave markers of all shapes and sizes rise from the lawn.

It is in this quiet place that Bill Camp spends much of his retirement.

Camp, who worked 35 years in construction for Morton Buildings, is known locally as the “Monument Man” for his efforts to clean and restore grave markers in cemeteries across Lenawee County and beyond.

He only started cleaning stones last spring, but he had been thinking about it for years.

“My dad and my uncle Larry had a monument business in Hudson,” Camp said. “Camp Monuments. Then they sold it to Brian Marry, and my brother Terry works in the business.”

Camp spent years working alongside his father and uncle, delivering and setting grave markers. As he moved through cemeteries, he often noticed the condition of older stones — darkened by moss, mildew and lichen, or weathered by decades of rain, snow and sun.

“My dad said I should do something about it,” Camp said. “So when I retired, I decided it was a good time to get started.”

On a late afternoon walk through the Hudson City Cemetery, Camp stopped in front of a Victorian granite obelisk with the name “DIBBLE” standing out in raised letters across a panel. The monument marks the center of a family plot and is surrounded by at least nine gravestones, most dating to the 1880s.

Camp cleaned the monument and surrounding markers last year for an out-of-town relative who wanted the family plot restored.

“This one here? It took me about five hours to do this one because I had to have a ladder to get up to the top,” Camp said. “The way the chemical works, you start at the top and work down. As you keep working down, the chemical keeps working on everything else.”

Older monuments require special care. “Older stones are marble,” Camp said. “It’s porous. It’s soft. Over the years, the weather has started taking the face off.  When marble just comes out of the ground, it’s a softer, more porous stone than granite.”

Newer markers, he said, are generally granite, with lettering and designs typically cut by sandblasting.

Camp does not use harsh household cleaners or acids. After researching proper methods, he began using eco-safe cleaning compounds designed for cemetery stones. He started with a product called D/2, a cleaner widely used for biological growth on stone, and now uses a similar product supplied through a company in Connecticut.

“It doesn’t have any acid in it, so it’s not going to kill the grass,” he said.

The cleaner is designed to remove moss, mildew, lichen and other organic growth without damaging the stone. Camp said the process continues even after he leaves the cemetery.

“After you’re done, the chemical keeps working,” he said. “After a month, it’ll keep cleaning. Light rain will help clean.”

Camp works from a trailer behind his pickup truck, hauling a hose, sponges, and equipment  to the stones he is cleaning. His tool bucket holds brushes of different sizes, allowing him to work into lettering, crevices and carved details.

He takes before-and-after photographs that help show the transformation. A stone blackened with mildew, moss and lichen can slowly return to its natural color. White marble, especially, can brighten again after treatment. The work has grown quickly. Once people see the difference, they ask him to clean family stones in other cemeteries.

“Once you get started and people see what you are doing, they want to have it done,” Camp said.

He has cleaned markers throughout Lenawee County and has gone as far as Coldwater. At one cemetery there, he cleaned 34 stones and made minor repairs to two others, including small marble markers that needed to be glued back together. He said he is willing to drive within a 60-mile radius of Hudson.

Camp’s connection to monuments is a family story. His father, Richard Camp, sold grave markers out of an office in Hudson. His mother, Betty, also sold markers after Richard died. His uncle Larry was part of the family business, and today Camp’s brother Terry works in the monument business too.

For Camp, the work is part skill, part patience and part respect.

He understands the stone — what it can withstand, what will damage it, and what time has already taken away. He also understands what the markers mean to families.

In a cemetery, every stone carries a name. Some are carved deep into granite. Some are fading from marble. Some stand at the center of large family plots, while others lean quietly against tree trunks in the shade.

Camp cannot stop time from weathering them. But with a hose, a bucket of brushes and the right cleaner, he can uncover what is still there.

One stone at a time, the Monument Man is helping old names be seen again.

Bill Camp, the Monument Man, can be reached at 517-306-7751 or 517-448-7475.