Frederick Lenz - Death and His Estate

Death and His Estate

Lenz died on April 12, 1998. He drowned at his estate on Conscience Bay in Old Field, New York after taking a massive drug overdose. Reports differ on whether Lenz took phenobarbital or 80–150 Valium tablets. With him at the time of his death was 33-year-old model and devoted follower Brinn Lacey who, according the police report, was covered with bruises. Lacey contends that his death was part of a suicide pact. Three terriers owned by Lenz were also found at the scene, drugged with phenobarbital. According to Psychology Today, police found his body dressed in a suit and tie, with a dog collar around his neck.

He left an $18 million fortune, including several Learjets, mansions and luxury cars. His will was a matter of dispute between the National Audubon Society and his former accountant/executor Norman Marcus, who created the Frederick P. Lenz Foundation for American Buddhism two months after Lenz died. This apparently fulfilled provisions of the will necessary for Marcus to retain control of the Lenz fortune. According the New York Times, the will was also contested by Diana Jean Reynolds, who claimed to be Lenz' widow, and Deborah Lenz, whose claim to be Lenz' widow is based on her view that they had a common law marriage.

His estate was eventually settled in 2002. The Frederick P. Lenz Foundation for American Buddhism shows substantial grant making activity from 2003 onwards, as well as a substantial donation to the National Audubon Society. As part of the settlement with Audubon, a gorge was named for Lenz at the Sharon Audubon Center in northwest Connecticut. Neither of the two women who alleged to have been wives of Lenz received anything in the settlement. The IRS 990 forms (available for free from Guidestar), show a substantial infusion of cash to the Foundation beginning in 2002. The Foundation is run by a Board of Directors on which Marcus and Norman Oberstein sit as lifetime members. Lenz' father Frederick P. Lenz Jr joined Marcus and Oberstein on the Board of Directors up until his death on September 17, 2009, after which he was replaced by Lenz' former student Lisa Lewinson. An Advisory Committee chaired by Lewinson and including former students Elizabeth Cecil, Dana Schwartz, Joaquin Lievano, and Walter Goodwin, as well as four leading Zen practitioners — George (Dai En) Burch, Fleet Maull, Dennis Genpo Merzel, and Gerry (Shishin) Wick — advises the Board of Directors but has no voting rights of its own.

The Foundation, and not Audubon, appears to have rights to most of Lenz' intellectual property. In addition to selling CDs, books, and videos, the Foundation makes grants to non-profit organizations that it deems to be promoting activities consistent with American Buddhism as taught by Lenz. One of their major beneficiaries is Peacemaker Circle International, an outgrowth of the Zen Peacemaker Order founded by Roshi Bernie Glassman, a student of the well-known Zen teacher Taizan Hakuyu Maezumi Roshi. Norman Marcus, president and member of the Board of Directors of the Foundation, also serves on the Finance Committee of the Zen Peacemakers. Advisory Committee member Dennis Genpo Merzel is another student of Maezumi Roshi.