Taekwondo and Korean Martial Arts Pioneers: In Memoriam
The Korean schools, or kwans, that emerged after 1945 produced taekwondo, Tang Soo Do and hapkido, and their teachers carried those arts to the United States and around the world. These are the founders, pioneers and school builders of the Korean martial arts.
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The profiles
Choi Hong Hi
1918 – 2002
South Korean army general who named taekwon-do and founded the International Taekwon-Do Federation in 1966.
Hwang Kee
1914 – 2002
Korean martial artist who founded the Moo Duk Kwan in 1945 and developed Tang Soo Do and Soo Bahk Do.
Nam Tae Hi
1929 – 2013
South Korean taekwondo pioneer who co-founded the Oh Do Kwan and was known as the father of taekwondo in Vietnam.
Jhoon Rhee
1932 – 2018
Korean-American taekwondo grandmaster who founded the Jhoon Rhee Institute in Washington, D.C. in 1962, invented Safe-T foam sparring equipment, and taught more than 350 members of the U.S. Congress.
Ji Han-jae
1936 – 2026
Hapkido pioneer who founded the An Moo Kwan and Sung Moo Kwan and developed Sin Moo Hapkido, building the curriculum and certification structure the art still uses.
Kang Won-sik
1939 – 2024
Songmugwan third-generation master who led the 1978 unification of the Korean taekwondo kwans and became inaugural president of the Kukkiwon as a special corporation in 2010.
Dai-won Moon
1943 – 2026
The father of taekwondo in Mexico. Competed on the 1960s American karate circuit as David Moon, then opened Mexico's first taekwondo school in 1969 and built a network of some 500 branches.
Koang Woong Kim
1940 – 2025
Founder of the United States Taekwondo Academy in Kenosha, Wisconsin in 1978, three-term chairman of the World Taekwondo Federation technical committee.
MoonSung Lee
1939 – 2025
Founder of the Moon S. Lee Taekwondo Institute in Astoria, Queens in 1972, which he ran for more than fifty years. A founding member of the U.S. Taekwondo Grandmasters Society.
Rainey Cheeks
1952 – 2026
Bronze medallist at the first World Taekwondo Championships in 1973 and winner of the All American Open at Madison Square Garden, who founded Inner Light Ministries and became a leading figure in Washington HIV/AIDS support.
Every profile in this section follows the In Memoriam research standard: deaths confirmed before anything is written, every claim sourced, conflicts between sources printed, and promotional claims labelled as such.