Barbara Brunckhorst

Frank Brunckhorst’s daughter, Barbara Brunckhorst, passed away from brain cancer on November 18, 2020. As trustee of the Barbara Brunckhorst Foundation, with $350 million in assets, she gave away millions during her lifetime. Most grants were awarded to environmental organizations. Filings from 2018 show a grant of $1,160,000 to the Sierra Club, $400,000 to the Nature Conservancy, and millions more to other environmental advocacy groups. With Barbara gone, her nephew Frank Brunckhorst III is slated to receive her shares of the company. The two apparently had a close relationship. Her dying wish, he says, was for a significant portion of her stake in Boar’s Head to be given to environmental charities, and to neuroscience research at Carnegie Mellon University. He intends to honor her wishes. But enter Eric Bischoff, grandson of co-founder Bruno Bischoff. He claims that Barbara’s shares should rightfully go to him, not to charity, although the rationale for that claim has yet to be fully explained.