Zentatsu Richard Baker, Date of Birth, Place of Birth

Zentatsu Richard Baker

American writer and monk

Date of Birth: 30-Mar-1936

Place of Birth: Biddeford, Maine, United States

Profession: writer

Zodiac Sign: Aries

Zentatsu Richard Baker (born March 30, 1936), born Richard Dudley Baker, is an American Soto Zen master (or roshi), the founder and guiding teacher of Dharma Sangha—which consists of Crestone Mountain Zen Center located in Crestone, Colorado and the Buddhistisches Studienzentrum (Johanneshof) in Germany's Black Forest.
As the American Dharma heir to Shunryu Suzuki, Baker assumed abbotship of the San Francisco Zen Center (SFZC) shortly before Suzuki's death in 1971.
He remained abbot there until 1984, the year he resigned his position after it was disclosed in the previous year that he and the wife of one of SFZC's benefactors had been having an ongoing affair.
Despite the controversy connected with his resignation, Baker was instrumental in helping the San Francisco Zen Center to become one of the most successful Zen institutions in the United States.