In Memoriam: The People Who Built This Industry
This industry is barely seventy years old in America, and the people who invented it are dying. Most of them will get a paragraph somewhere. That is not enough for the men and women who worked out, from nothing, how a person teaches martial arts for a living.
These are not obituary rewrites. Each one is a working record: what the person actually did, what they built, what it cost, what a school owner can still take from it, and — stated plainly — what we could not confirm. Where the received story and the documentary record disagree, we say so rather than pick the flattering version.
The profiles
Jhoon Rhee
1932 – 2018 · The Father of American Taekwondo
Arrived in Texas with forty-six dollars. Invented the foam sparring gear that is in the Museum of Modern Art, taught 350 members of Congress for free over forty-five years, ran the first television campaign this industry ever had, and paid his instructors in equity.
Chuck Norris
1940 – 2026 · The man who sold America on martial arts
An airman who took a class at Osan because it was there, and became the first homegrown American martial arts movie star. His school chain struggled in the 1970s, which is the part nobody tells. KickStart Kids has run for thirty-four years.
Allen Steen
1940 – 2025 · The Father of Texas Blood and Guts Karate
Beat Joe Lewis and Chuck Norris on the same night in 1966, and then built the first real chain of martial arts schools in America. Black Belt was writing about him as a business story in 1970.
J. Pat Burleson
1936 – 2021 · The Father of All Karate Champions
Won the first U.S. National Karate Championships in 1964. His more durable contribution was the belt-goal system — the intermediate-rank ladder that most of this industry’s retention still runs on.
Nick Cokinos
1921 – 2014 · Founder, the Educational Funding Company
The only man in this section who never earned a belt, and arguably the most consequential. He brought the dance-studio playbook to martial arts in 1967, and built the billing company that a substantial share of American tuition ran through.
Ji Han-jae
1936 – 2026 · Dojunim, Sin Moo Hapkido
He did not invent hapkido. He built the kwan, the curriculum and the certification structure that let it spread across two continents — and fought Bruce Lee in Game of Death along the way.
Hiroshi Shirai
1937 – 2024 · JKA Shotokan
Won both kata and kumite at the 1962 JKA championships. Sent to Europe on a demonstration tour in 1965 and stayed fifty-nine years. Italy’s karate population is his doing.
Dai-won Moon
1943 – 2026 · Father of Mexican taekwondo
Won Allen Steen’s U.S. Karate Championships three times as “David Moon,” then went to a country with no taekwondo in it and built five hundred schools.
Tony Thompson
1950 – 2025 · West Coast World Martial Arts
Co-founded one of America’s earliest affiliate-school networks with Ernie Reyes Sr. and held the partnership together for fifty-seven years.
Rainey Cheeks
1952 – 2026 · 9th dan, taekwondo
Bronze at the first World Taekwondo Championships in 1973, and the Madison Square Garden All American Open. Then forty years of much harder work in Washington.
Carol Middleton
1948 – 2026 · D.C. Self-Defense Karate Association
Founded a school in 1976 and directed it for fifty years. Learned American Sign Language so deaf students could train with her.
Richard Norton
1950 – 2025 · Zen Do Kai; fight choreographer
Co-created an Australian system, fought Chuck Norris and Jackie Chan on screen, then choreographed Mad Max: Fury Road. Took a BJJ white belt in middle age.
Richard Bresler
1953 – 2025 · Gracie Jiu-Jitsu’s first American student
Took his first lesson from his roommate in 1979, funded the Gracie Academy, invested in the first UFC, and made coral belt from a hospital bed.
Takayuki Kubota
1934 – 2024 · Founder, Gosoku-Ryu
Founded a style and an international organisation — and invented, named and trademarked the Kubotan, the best product story this industry has.
Keith Kernspecht
1945 – 2024 · European WingTsun Organisation
Built the largest martial arts school network in Europe: more than a thousand schools, on a licensing model almost nobody here has studied.
Saekson Janjira
1961 – 2026 · Six-time world Muay Thai champion
Two hundred fights and a Lumpinee title in Thailand, then thirty years teaching Americans the real thing — rebuilding from zero twice.
Wong Kiew Kit
1944 – 2026 · Shaolin Wahnam Institute
The traditionalist who behaved like a publisher — he wrote the curriculum down instead of guarding it, and reached students on six continents who never met him.
Liang Yiquan
c. 1929 – 2026 · Founder, Shaolin Epo Wushu School, Dengfeng
Not a temple monk, whatever the headlines say — a village lay master who became a state wushu official and converted an inherited family curriculum into syllabus, grading standard and published text. That move is why Dengfeng now holds the largest martial arts schools on earth.
James Lew
1952 – 2026 · Emmy-winning stunt coordinator
From the original Kung Fu series to Avengers: Endgame. Fifty years in an industry that discards martial artists in their thirties, because he kept moving up the credit list.
Gary Alexander
1938 – 2025 · Isshinryu, “The Hammer”
One dojo in New Jersey and a national reputation, built out of promoting the tournaments everyone else came to.
Marcio Stambowsky
1959 – 2026 · Rolls Gracie’s Famous Five
8th degree red-and-white belt, one of the small group Rolls Gracie produced before 1982, who came to America in 2007 and built his own academy.
Orned “Chicken” Gabriel
1950 – 2025 · United Karate Federation
Opened in San Diego at seventeen and stayed fifty-eight years. Twenty-five black belts in a career — roughly one every two and a half years, deliberately.
Koang Woong Kim
1940 – 2025 · U.S. Taekwondo Academy, Kenosha
Forty-eight years in one Wisconsin storefront while chairing the WTF technical committee three times — then handed the school to his son.
MoonSung Lee
1939 – 2025 · Astoria, Queens
Fifty years in one neighbourhood, teaching the children of his first students. The compounding asset that cannot be bought or franchised.
Kang Won-sik
1939 – 2024 · Songmugwan; the Kukkiwon
He led the 1978 unification of the kwans — the political achievement that made a taekwondo rank mean the same thing everywhere.
Dennis Penfold
1931 – 2024 · 8th dan judo
Seventy-six years on the mat, and a career spent insisting that coaching is a separate skill that has to be taught.
Pepe Roses Juaneda
1949 – 2025 · IJF Secretary of Refereeing
Refereed judo at two Olympics and organised the refereeing at two more. Officiating is the product, and he built the system behind it.
Daniel C. Brown Sr.
1940 – 2025 · Brown School of Judo, Utica
One school, one mid-sized city, fifty years — and a son who became an NCAA national champion. The median reader of this journal, written up properly.
Toby Cooling
1944 – 2022 · Order of Isshin-Ryu
Shimabuku promoted him in Okinawa and told him to go home and teach. He did — for fifty-one years, while working as a deputy sheriff.
Tone Shimizu
1938 – 2025 · Judo instructor
Born in the Philippines, raised in Yokohama, educated in Seattle. His family sent memorial gifts to a judo scholarship endowment.
Gary Lee Cox
d. 2025 · Green Beret and instructor
Fifty years of teaching that left almost no documentary trace. A cautionary entry about what survives a career in this business.
Dale Thompson
d. 2026 · Orlando Judo
Seventy years on the mat and a leader of the Florida yudanshakai — the regional structure commercial martial arts still lacks.
Manny Saavedra
d. 2024 · World Sansei Goju-Ryu
Founded his own organisation out of Miami in 1979, from Peter Urban’s USA Goju line. The thinnest-sourced entry here, and the one that best shows what happens when an organisation keeps no records of its own.
Ned Muffley
1930 – 2025 · The Navy Band Conductor Who Brought Order to Martial Arts
Commander, U.S. Navy. Led the United States Navy Band from 1973 to 1978, then spent decades as General Manager of the Educational Funding Company, building the business systems American martial arts schools still run on.
Bernard Kerik
1955 – 2025 · The Commissioner Who Never Stopped Being a Martial Artist
New York City Police Commissioner on 11 September 2001. Began training as an Army military policeman in South Korea, taught defensive tactics to Special Forces at Fort Bragg, and spent twenty years teaching at school owners’ events.
Mike Anderson
c. 1942 – 2026 · The Promoter Who Built the Arena for Modern Sport Karate
Created the Top Ten Nationals and the first national karate ratings, made foam sparring gear mandatory, produced the 1974 World Professional Karate Championships that launched the PKA, and helped found WAKO.
H.K. Lee
1947 – 2026 · The Grandmaster Who Built a Taekwondo Family in Herndon
9th Dan Kukkiwon. Took over a Herndon, Virginia school in 1978 and ran it for nearly fifty years, brought his brothers into the profession, and received the Korean Presidential Commendation in 2014.
Hilary J. Sandoval III
d. 2026 · Martial Arts Promoter, School Owner, and Industry Pioneer
El Paso promoter who staged his first professional kickboxing card at eighteen with his brother Tony, took world title fights across Texas and Arizona, and founded the ABK schools in El Paso in 1988.
The founders: a historical record
The profiles above mostly record recent losses. This section goes further back, to the people who built the styles, schools, tournaments and associations the industry still runs on, whenever they died. Each is written the same way: what the record shows, what is only claimed, and what a school owner can take from it. Profiles are added as the research on each is completed.
Robert Trias
1923 – 1989 · Before There Was an American Karate Industry
Opened a karate school in Phoenix in 1946 and founded the United States Karate Association in 1948 while serving as a highway patrolman. Widely credited with many American karate firsts; some are now questioned.
Ed Parker
1931 – 1990 · The Man Who Built American Kenpo
Rebuilt a Hawaiian kenpo lineage into a system other instructors could teach, built a chain of schools from Pasadena, and founded the Long Beach International Karate Championships in 1964.
Bruce Lee
1940 – 1973 · The School Owner Who Closed His Schools
Opened schools in Seattle, Oakland and Los Angeles, charged Hollywood’s highest private-lesson fees, named Jeet Kune Do in 1967, and closed his schools around 1970 to protect the quality of the teaching.
Carlos Gracie Sr.
1902 – 1994 · The Founder Who Built the Family Business
The eldest Gracie brother: opened the family academy in Rio, ran the Gracie Challenge, devised the Gracie Diet and raised a dynasty of teachers. How much of the art he deserves credit for is still disputed.
Mas Oyama
1923 – 1994 · Kyokushin, and the Split That Followed
Built Kyokushin karate into a worldwide organization through hand-picked branch chiefs who could sell as well as fight. After his death a contested will split it into rival groups.
Hélio Gracie
1913 – 2009 · The Family Academy That Became a Global Industry
Taught for decades at the Gracie academy in Rio, fought Kimura at the Maracanã, and raised the sons who took Gracie Jiu-Jitsu to America and created the UFC.
Rolls Gracie
1951 – 1982 · The Teacher Whose Students Built Modern Jiu-Jitsu
Taught for barely a decade and died at 31, but the black belts he produced went on to found Alliance, lead Gracie Barra and build the competition culture of modern jiu-jitsu.
Carlson Gracie
1932 – 2006 · The Open Door
Ran a Copacabana academy where fighters who could not pay trained free, and produced a generation of champions. The team split when he moved abroad, and Brazilian Top Team was born.
Oswaldo Fadda
c. 1920 – 2005 · The Lineage Outside the Gracie Family
Took jiu-jitsu to Rio’s northern suburbs, challenged the Gracies on their own mat, and founded the lineage that runs through Nova União.
Masatoshi Nakayama
1913 – 1987 · The Man Who Built the Instructor Pipeline
Chief instructor of the Japan Karate Association for 38 years. Built its instructor course, its national championship and its textbooks, and sent graduates around the world. The JKA split in court after his death.
Hwang Kee
1914 – 2002 · Founder of the Moo Duk Kwan
Founded the school whose Tang Soo Do reached America through servicemen like Chuck Norris. Refused the taekwondo merger, trademarked his name and logo, and sealed his succession in writing.
Choi Hong Hi
1918 – 2002 · The General Who Named Taekwon-Do
Named the art, wrote its fifteen-volume encyclopedia and founded the International Taekwon-Do Federation. His politics sent him into exile, and the ITF split three ways after his death.
Ip Man
1893 – 1972 · The Refugee Who Made Wing Chun a World Art
Began teaching Wing Chun for a living in Hong Kong in his late fifties. Through his senior students, and a teenage Bruce Lee, the art reached every continent.
Peter Urban
1934 – 2004 · The Man Who Brought Goju to New York
Opened one of the first Goju-ryu schools in America in 1959, staged the first karate championship at Madison Square Garden, and founded USA Goju. His will said “majority rules.”
Tatsuo Shimabuku
1908 – 1975 · Isshin-ryu and the Marines Who Carried It Home
Founded Isshin-ryu in Okinawa in 1956 and taught U.S. Marines who took it home and opened schools across America. Retired in 1972 and named his son successor.
Gogen Yamaguchi
1909 – 1989 · “The Cat” Who Built Goju-kai
Built Chojun Miyagi’s Goju-ryu into the worldwide Goju-kai, helped turn free sparring into a sport, and co-founded Japan’s national karate federation.
Shoshin Nagamine
1907 – 1997 · The Master Who Wrote It Down
Police officer and founder of Matsubayashi-ryu. His books carried the history of Okinawan karate to English-speaking students, and his son succeeded him.
Yodtong Senanan
1937 – 2013 · The Kru Behind Sityodtong
Built the Sityodtong Muay Thai camp, trained Samart Payakaroon and dozens of stadium champions, and opened his doors to foreign fighters who carried his name abroad.
Hidetaka Nishiyama
1928 – 2008 · The Man Who Brought the JKA to America
Arrived in Los Angeles in 1961, co-wrote a best-selling karate textbook, and built a ladder of governing bodies from the AAKF to the ITKF. He fought for traditional karate’s place in the Olympic movement to the end.
Teruyuki Okazaki
1931 – 2020 · The Six-Month Posting That Lasted Sixty Years
Helped build the JKA instructor course, then came to Philadelphia in 1961 on a posting meant to last months. He stayed, founded the International Shotokan Karate Federation, and led it out of the JKA in 2007.
Keinosuke Enoeda
1935 – 2003 · “The Tiger” Who Built British Karate
The 1963 JKA champion known as “the Tiger” arrived in England in 1965 and led the Karate Union of Great Britain for the rest of his life. The fight over his successor split British Shotokan in two.
Yutaka Yaguchi
1932 – 2023 · Shotokan in the Mountain States
One of the first graduates of the JKA instructor course, he came to Los Angeles in 1965 and settled in Denver in 1972, building ISKF Colorado and the Mountain States region over more than forty years.
Wong Shun Leung
1935 – 1997 · The Fighter Who Taught Bruce Lee
Ip Man’s best-known fighter, “King of Talking Hands,” built Wing Chun’s reputation in Hong Kong’s challenge matches of the 1950s and did much of the day-to-day coaching of a teenage Bruce Lee.
Nam Tae Hi
1929 – 2013 · Father of Taekwondo in Vietnam
Co-founded the Oh Do Kwan with Choi Hong Hi, broke thirteen roof tiles before President Syngman Rhee, went abroad with taekwondo’s first demonstration team and taught the South Vietnamese army before settling in the United States.
Richard Kim
1917 – 2001 · The Classical Man
Born in Hawaii, trained in Japan and China, taught Peter Urban in Yokohama and a generation in San Francisco, and wrote the history of karate’s masters for American readers in The Weaponless Warriors.
Donn F. Draeger
1922 – 1982 · The Marine Who Mapped the Martial Arts
A Marine officer and judo pioneer who became the first non-Japanese instructor of an ancient Japanese sword school, and whose books — from Practical Karate to the Classical Bujutsu trilogy — gave the West a serious map of Asia’s fighting arts.
Apidej Sit-Hirun
1941 – 2013 · Muay Thai’s Fighter of the Century
A champion at both Lumpinee and Rajadamnern whose kick became legend, he was honored by King Bhumibol as Muay Thai’s Fighter of the Century, and spent decades after his fighting career coaching the next generation.
How these profiles are researched
- A death is confirmed before anything is written. A named obituary, a funeral home record, or reporting from a major outlet. An absence of recent news is not evidence that someone has died, and we do not treat it as such.
- Every claim is traced to a source, and where the sources conflict we print the conflict and say which we follow and why.
- Promotional records are labelled as promotional. Titles, undefeated streaks and student counts are frequently unverifiable. We report how a person was billed and what the documentary record shows, separately.
- Numbers that only one source carries are attributed, not asserted.
- We do not manufacture quotations. Where a subject left no quotable record, we say so.
- Cause of death and survivors are printed only when the family has made them public.
- Corrections are welcome and are made with attribution. If you trained with these people, worked for them, or hold records from the era, we want to hear from you — particularly on tuition rates, contract terms and enrollment procedures from the 1960s and 1970s, which are almost entirely undocumented.
In progress
This section is being extended. Profiles under research include figures from Shotokan, Taekwondo, Brazilian jiu-jitsu, Muay Thai, Wing Chun, Isshin-Ryu, women’s martial arts and the commercial school industry, covering losses from 2024 through 2026. The historical record now covers the founders of the Gracie academy system, Kyokushin, the Japan Karate Association and its instructors abroad, Goju-kai and American Goju, the Moo Duk Kwan, the International Taekwon-Do Federation, Wing Chun, Isshin-Ryu, Matsubayashi-ryu, the great Muay Thai camps and the scholars who first wrote the field down. Names are added as each death and biography is verified, and where the sourcing is thin the entry says so.
If there is someone you believe belongs here, tell us.
Related
The NAPMA Lifetime Achievement Award recognises people while they are still working. The masthead lists the columnists and contributors who have written for this journal since 1996, and the interview archive collects long-form conversations with the people who built the business.