85 degrees Farenheit. Welcome to a California in November!
Well, we certainly have been busy. We had special seminars by Mr. Bob White, Mr. Mike Stone, Mr. Ed Downey and Mr. John Sepulveda. These special guests come here to help us all expand and improve our Martial arts Knowledge, we are so grateful for their time and experience! If you missed them, we will try and have a few in 2017.
United Martial Artists for Christ Hall of Fame
Congratulations to Mr. Kellogg who was one of this year’s inductees into the United Martial Artists for Christ (UMAFC) Hall of Fame in late October in Garden Grove, CA. It was a wonderful evening of friendship and tribute. We had 33 people at the dinner representing Kellogg’s American Kenpo Karate. Thanks to you all!
Christmas Party
We are preparing to have our annual Christmas Party on Saturday, December 3rd at our studio. We will be having a potluck celebration and there will be plenty of food for everybody! If you are a student please let us know if you can come and feel free to invite your family and friends to attend.!
Ed Parker, Sr. — The Father of American Kenpo Karate
Just a refresher for our students both new and old:
Mr. Edmund Kealoha “Ed” Parker was born in Hawaii in 1931 and began training in the martial arts at a young age, first in judo and then later in boxing. Sometime in the 1940s, Ed Parker was first introduced to Kenpō by Frank Chow who then introduced him to William Chow, a student of James Mitose. William trained Parker while serving in the Coast Guard and attending Brigham Young University. In 1953, he was promoted to the rank of black belt.
Parker, seeing that modern times posed new situations that were not addressed in Kenpo, adapted the art to make it more easily applicable to the streets of America and called his style, American Kenpo Karate. Ed Parker opened the first “Americanized” karate school in the western United States in Provo, Utah in 1954. By 1956, Parker opened a dojo in Pasadena, California. His first brown belt student was Charles Beeder. There is controversy over whether Beeder received the first black belt awarded by Parker. Beeder’s son has stated for the record that his father’s black belt came after Ed Parker had moved to California.
The other black belts in chronological order up to 1962 were: Rich Montgomery, James Ibrao, Mills Crenshaw (who was authorized by Ed Parker to open a school in Salt Lake City, UT in late 1958. That school later became the birthplace of the International Kenpo Karate Association; or IKKA.), Tom Garriga, Rick Flores, Al and Jim Tracy of Tracy Kenpo, Chuck Sullivan, John McSweeney, and Dave Hebler.
Parker was well known for his business creativity and helped many martial artists open their own dojos. He was well known in Hollywood where he trained a great many stunt men and celebrities; most notable was Elvis Presley, a few masters who are known around the world to this day such as Al Tracy, Bob White, Huk Planas, Larry Tatum, Bob Mitchell, Ron Chapel, Frank Trejo, Eddie Downey, John Sepulveda, and Steve LaBounty. He helped Bruce Lee gain national attention by introducing him at his International Karate Championships. He served as one of Elvis Presley’s bodyguard during the singer’s final years, did movie stunt-work and acting, and was the Kenpo instructor of martial arts action movie actor Jeff Speakman. He is best known to Kenpoists as the founder of American Kenpo and is referred to fondly as the “Father of American Kenpo”. He is formally referred to as Senior Grand Master of American Kenpo.