David Chadwick, Soto Zen priest, author, archivist, and one of the earliest disciples of Shunryu Suzuki, died on February 23, 2026 in Bali, Indonesia.
Chadwick began his Zen study under Shunryu Suzuki Roshi in 1966. Ordained as a Zen priest in 1971, he later wrote Suzuki's biography, Crooked Cucumber, which remains the definitive account of Suzuki Roshi’s life and teaching and a foundational text for generations of practitioners in the Suzuki lineage. For more than fifty years, he dedicated himself to preserving and transmitting the life and teachings of Suzuki Roshi. He was the Founding Poobah of Cuke Archives, available at cuke.com. He also authored Thank You and OK!: An American Zen Failure in Japan, and Tassajara Stories: A Sort of Memoir/Oral History of the First Zen Buddhist Monastery in the West—The First Year, 1967, as well as many other books, essays, songs, and oral histories.