Owner of several Bay Area cemeteries loses ruling over $52 million in ‘endowment care’ funds

A judge has rejected a request by the owner of Mount Tamalpais Cemetery and Mortuary to regain control over millions of dollars in maintenance funds for four Bay Area graveyards.

The state Cemetery and Funeral Bureau seized “endowment care funds” totaling about $52 million in 2023. It acted after it learned that Buck Kamphausen, whose companies’ owned the four cemeteries, was preparing to transfer control of the funds to Evergreen Ministries, a purported tax-exempt, nonprofit religious organization. Such organizations are exempt from regulation by the state bureau.

An evidentiary hearing overseen by Solano Superior Court Judge Christine Carringer was conducted in June and July to consider Kamphausen’s request that the funds be returned to his control. The other cemeteries involved in the matter are Skyview Memorial Lawn in Vallejo, Chapel of the Light in Fresno and Evergreen Cemetery in Oakland.

Carringer’s ruling says “the principals of the cemetery led by Buck Kamphausen created Evergreen Ministries.” At the time, the cemetery bureau was in the process of disciplining Kamphausen for alleged failures to file yearly reports and other more serious violations.

“It is entirely unclear that Evergreen Ministries is indeed a ‘religious organization,’” Carringer wrote.

Carringer wrote that Joshua Voss, the vice president of Evergreen Ministries, testified that it was formed “to help save on expenses.”

“The benefit of creating a false religious organization is clear: the avoidance of oversight by state regulators which included not having to file annual reports, and exemption from state property taxes,” Carringer wrote.

Kamphausen could not be reached for comment, and his attorney, Steven Gurnee, did not respond to a request for comment.

Endowment care funds are additional charges included when cemetery spaces are purchased. They are required to be managed by a third-party trustee in a fund separate from the finances of the cemetery and invested to earn income for the general care and maintenance of the cemetery. Cemeteries are not allowed to otherwise use the funds.

The ruling, referring to endowment care funds as ECF, states that Kamphausen conceded the factual basis of certain accusations “including the use of the ECF for purposes other than care, maintenance and embellishment of the cemetery, allowing money to flow into and out of the ECF for personal expenditures, and leaving funds languishing in bank accounts and not invested.”

Testimony during the hearing also documented investments such as using 2% of the funds to purchase gold and buying real estate from Kamphausen. At one point, 36 pounds of gold, purchased as an investment, was being stored on the grounds of Skyview Memorial.

Carringer wrote in her ruling that “testimony depicted financial dealings which were a conflict of interest, when Evergreen Ministries or the cemeteries purchased real estate owned by Buck Kamphausen.” The judge also said that testimony revealed a persistent pattern of commingling funds between endowment care funds and checking accounts from cemetery to cemetery.

“In all,” she wrote, “the picture that developed was of a complicated large-scale scheme of financial mismanagement, whether deliberate or unintended, directed and controlled by a single person: Buck Kamphausen.”

During the hearing, representatives of the Cemetery and Funeral Bureau and Congregation Kol Shofar in Tiburon testified about the allegedly substandard maintenance of Mount Tamalpais Cemetery. Kol Shofar purchased 1,200 plots in the cemetery in 1989 and has been selling them back over time to congregants.

“Plot owners testified to the severely deteriorated and deplorable state of the cemetery, unsafe and hazardous conditions ranging from rodent holes and mounds of dirt caused by rodents throughout the property to broken tree branches on road and walkways, tilting or tipped-over headstones, poorly maintained and blocked roads, tire tracks across headstones, animal feces, dirt and other debris on headstones, tall weeds obscuring grave markers and other severe conditions affecting both the safety of visitors and the condition of gravesites,” Carringer’s ruling says.

Jan Carragher, who filed a complaint with the state bureau not long after her father was buried at Mount Tamalpais Cemetery in 2016, wrote in an email that she is “relieved and thankful that the judge’s decision vindicates and reinforces my concerns about the condition and financial management issues at Mt Tam Cemetery.”

“Even though we have a long way to go before we see any substantive changes at the cemetery,” Carragher wrote, “we can all be assured that the Endowment Care and Special Care Funds will be protected by the Cemetery and Funeral Bureau for now.”

It is unclear whether Kamphausen will appeal the decision. He remains in control of the day-to-day management of the cemeteries.

The Cemetery and Funeral Bureau did not respond to a request for comment.

Gordon Gladstone, the executive director of Congregation Kol Shofar, said, “We were heartened that Judge Carringer made what we thought was the correction decision.”

“If I could wave a magic wand,” Gladstone said, “I would wish for new management that took their responsibilities seriously and reverently.”