The Nebraska Zen Center is one of the oldest Zen groups in the country, founded by Dainin Katagiri Roshi in 1975. The organization was formally incorporated as a nonprofit on March 17, 1977. Katagiri Roshi visited the group several times a year for over a dozen years.
According to the Omaha World Herald, NZC had 40-50 members in 1978. Gordon Becker, a student of Katagiri Roshi, was a central member of the group through the 1970s and 80s and offered his home near The University of Nebraska for meditation. Eventually, the group built a meditation hall in his backyard.
NZC moved to its present location in the Bemis Park neighborhood in 1992. Rev. Nonin Chowaney was the head priest until he retired in 2016. Dosho Port Roshi is the current head priest and co-teaches with Zen priest and head of zendo, Tetsugan Zummach Osho (click here for more about them).