Koang Woong Kim, 1940-2025: Forty-Eight Years on One Street in Kenosha
He founded a taekwondo school in downtown Kenosha, Wisconsin in 1978. It is still there, run by his son. Forty-eight years in one storefront is a business outcome most owners never see, and it is worth asking how it happened.
- Born
- 10 July 1940, South Korea
- Died
- 7 May 2025, at home in Kenosha, Wisconsin
- Rank
- 9th degree black belt, awarded 9 March 1990 by the World Taekwondo Federation
- Founded
- United States Taekwondo Academy, Kenosha, 1978
- Also
- USTU Coach of the Year 1987; three terms as WTF Technical Committee chairman; international referee
He taught in Germany before coming to the United States, opened a Chicago-area school in 1972, and in 1978 founded the United States Taekwondo Academy in Kenosha. He served three terms as chairman of the World Taekwondo Federation’s Technical Committee and worked as an international referee — the governing-body career running in parallel with the storefront the whole time. USA Taekwondo posted an in-memoriam notice when he died.
What a school owner should take from Koang Woong Kim
Two careers at once, and they were not in competition.
The refereeing and committee work took him away from his floor for decades — the sort of commitment most owners decline because it does not pay and the school “needs” them. What it bought was standing: a Kenosha school run by a man who chaired the WTF technical committee is not competing on price with the strip-mall school down the road.
And then the succession worked. The academy passed to his son and is still operating. Governing-body service and a family handover are the two least glamorous things on this page, and together they produced forty-eight years.
Sources, and what we could not confirm
- His age at death is disputed. The funeral home and local press say 85; his stated birth date of 10 July 1940 against a 7 May 2025 death gives 84, with his 85th birthday two months away. We have printed the dates and left the number out.
- Cause of death was not reported.
- Principal sources: the Draeger-Langendorf funeral home obituary, Racine County Eye, TMJ4, and USA Taekwondo.
Corrections and first-hand recollections are welcome and will be added with attribution.