Celebrating the life of a Fetzer visionary: Robert F. ‘Rob’ Lehman

The Fetzer Institute mourns the passing of Robert F. “Rob” Lehman, former president, longtime board chair, and president emeritus, who died peacefully on November 2, 2026, surrounded by his family. He was 83. 

For more than three decades, Lehman helped shape the Institute’s mission, direction, and culture, leaving a legacy of visionary leadership, deep compassion, and an abiding belief in the transformative power of love and human connection.

Lehman became president of the Fetzer Institute in 1989, guiding its pioneering exploration of the relationship between mind, body, and spirit. Under his leadership, the Institute supported groundbreaking research in mind-body health, contemplative practice, and human development, including the Emmy Award-winning PBS series Healing and the Mind with Bill Moyers. He also established the Institute’s first fellows program and oversaw the opening of Seasons, its retreat center, in 1994.

“Rob Lehman laid the foundation for the Fetzer Institute’s work. He was deeply intellectual, humbly faithful to Spirit, utterly dialogical, and impishly modeled how not to take oneself too seriously,” said Dan Cardinali, Fetzer Institute board chair. “As president and board chair, Rob showed us what authentic, entrepreneurial and hopeful leadership looks like. We are all so grateful for his life of love and hope.”

Together with his wife, Molly Vass Lehman, he also established GilChrist, a public contemplative retreat center in Three Rivers, Michigan, dedicated to reflection, renewal, and connection.

Following his presidency, Lehman served for many years as chair of the Institute’s board of trustees, helping deepen its commitment to love, forgiveness, and compassion.

As president emeritus, Lehman remained an active and beloved presence at Fetzer until the final weeks of his life.

“Rob loved this community. He gave so much of his heart and years of his life to it,” said Shakiyla Smith-Sengu, vice president of organizational culture. “He would often come by my office just to tell me how proud he was.”

Lehman’s legacy lives on in the Institute’s work and in the countless people and relationships he nurtured throughout his life.

Read more about Rob Lehman’s life, leadership, and enduring legacy in the Fetzer Institute’s remembrance.

Memorial arrangements

A service will be held November 19, 2026, at 2 p.m. at St. Luke’s Episcopal Church, 247 W. Lovell Street, Kalamazoo, Michigan. A reception will follow at the Park Club, 219 W. South Street, Kalamazoo.

The family obituary is available through the Kalamazoo Gazette.

About the Fetzer institute

The Fetzer Institute’s mission is to help build the spiritual foundation for a loving world. Learn more at fetzer.org and sign up for Fetzer’s newsletter at fetzer.org/subscribe.