Leon MacLaren spent his last decades serving his School fully. His immediate needs were met by his students, and at the time of his death his estate was limited to a small sum of money, his papers and books and his copyright in his writings, musical compositions and addresses to his many students which were often recorded and transcribed. These rights and possessions he gave without reservation to the assistant who had served him the last 22 years of his life, Dorine van Oyen. This is entirely in accordance with the Oral Tradition.

It is unfortunate that Mr MacLaren’s former school, the School of Economic Science, initially chose to ignore their teacher’s and founder’s last instruction and disregarded the facts of the copyright. In 2010 the SES finally unreservedly acknowledged that Dorine van Oyen owns the copyright of the musical compositions only, but it still claims the rights of the written material. Anyone who knew Mr MacLaren and anyone who respected him as their teacher would be saddened that his Will has been so dishonoured.