H.K. Lee, 1947–2026: The Grandmaster Who Built a Taekwondo Family in Herndon
Grandmaster Hyeon Kon Lee, known to thousands of students simply as H.K. Lee, arrived in Herndon, Virginia on a February day in 1976 to help a friend teach. He stayed for half a century. From a single rented school he built one of the longest-running taekwondo academies in the Washington region, brought his mother and his brothers to America, and watched the family name spread to dozens of schools. He died on 26 September 2026, aged 79.
In context: Lee came to a Washington region that Jhoon Rhee had already made the capital of American taekwondo. Other Korean masters who built the art in the United States are gathered in Taekwondo and Korean Martial Arts.
- Name
- Hyeon Kon Lee (이현곤), known as H.K. Lee
- Born
- 1947, Haeri-myeon, Gochang County, North Jeolla Province, South Korea
- Died
- 26 September 2026, Washington, D.C. area, aged 79
- Rank
- 9th Dan, Kukkiwon
- Trained in
- Jidokwan, North Jeolla headquarters, Jeonju, from 1964
- Known for
- H.K. Lee Academy of TaeKwonDo, Herndon, Virginia (from 1978); bringing five brothers into the profession; the Republic of Korea Presidential Commendation (2014)
A boy from Gochang
Lee was born in Gochang County in North Jeolla Province, one of six sons of In Kyu Lee and Yo Soon Lee. His academy’s family history describes his father as a postmaster and provincial legislator who built the middle and high schools in their hometown. A Korean taekwondo news profile adds that his father’s political opposition after the May 1961 military coup brought the family hard times.
He began taekwondo in 1958, taught first by an older relative, and started formal training in 1964 at the Jidokwan’s North Jeolla headquarters in Jeonju. Before leaving Korea he taught the children of American military families in Seoul. He later explained his decision to emigrate bluntly: in Korea at that time, he told a Korean newspaper, taekwondo instructors were not respected. America, he believed, would be different.
Herndon, 1976
The school that became his did not start as his. In September 1973 Grandmaster Chan Hak Park opened Park’s TaeKwonDo/Karate School at 733 Elden Street in Herndon. On 10 February 1976, at Park’s invitation, Lee arrived to teach there. He stayed about eight months, then spent two years travelling the country, teaching at friends’ schools in Los Angeles, Texas and elsewhere and taking part-time work to get by.
On 1 October 1978 he took over the Herndon school and renamed it the H.K. Lee Academy of TaeKwonDo. He married Gail Wright on 4 May 1980, and became a United States citizen in 1981. By 1983 the academy had more than 200 students and moved to 688 Spring Street, where it stayed for twenty-one years and grew past 700 students. In June 2004 it moved to its present building at 465 Herndon Parkway, more than 16,000 square feet. In 2014 the local paper put his active enrollment at more than 500 students.
The academy still describes itself as serving the Herndon-Reston area “since 1973”. That date belongs to Park’s school; Lee’s own ownership began in 1978.
The Lee brothers
Once established, Lee brought his mother and his younger siblings to the United States, and he taught his brothers the business as well as the art. They built schools of their own across North Carolina: Grandmaster K.S. Lee in Cary, Grandmaster Jun Lee in Raleigh and Knightdale, Senior Master Sang Ho Lee in Burlington, Senior Master Byung Lee in Greenville, and Master Jung Ho Lee in Raleigh. Jun Lee went on to build Black Belt World, earn his own 9th Dan and run for mayor of Knightdale in 2011. The Korean taekwondo press has counted roughly fifty schools in America connected to the family, about forty run directly by the brothers and the rest by their students, and the family established an annual Lee Brothers Cup tournament in 2012.
Honours
On 4 September 2014, International Taekwondo Day, Lee received a Presidential Commendation from President Park Geun-hye of the Republic of Korea. It was presented at the opening ceremony of Taekwondowon, the national taekwondo park in Muju. Local press reported that he was the first recipient honoured at that ceremony. He accepted it by thanking “my wife Gail, my mother,” his family, his masters and students, and “other taekwondo families worldwide.” Five years earlier, in 2009, he had brought eleven American students to the World Taekwondo Culture Expo in Korea.
He held the rank of 9th Dan from the Kukkiwon, taekwondo’s world headquarters, and his academy lists him as a licensed Grandmaster of the U.S. Taekwondo Union.
His death
His family announced on his Facebook page that he “passed peacefully” late at night, and described him as a husband, father, grandfather and brother. They wrote that their family “expands well beyond blood,” that he “so deeply loved and cared for his TaeKwonDo family,” and asked for privacy while arrangements are made. A celebration of life will be announced later. The family has invited students and friends to send stories and photographs for it to hklee424@aol.com.
He is survived by his wife, Gail Wright Lee. Their daughter Janelle Lee is a master instructor at the academy.
What a school owner should take from H.K. Lee
He did not start a school. He took one over. Lee spent eight months teaching in Park’s school before he left, and two more years teaching in other people’s schools around the country, before he owned anything. When he did take over, he already knew the building, the town and the students. Many owners today dream of opening from scratch; the lower-risk path is often to teach inside an existing school, earn its students’ trust, and succeed an owner who is ready to move on.
He moved when the school outgrew the room, and not before. Three buildings in forty-eight years, each move made at a clear enrollment milestone: past 200 students in 1983, past 700 before 2004. Growth in the room came first; square footage followed.
He trained his successors as owners, not just as black belts. Five brothers learned the business in his school and built their own. A daughter became a master instructor. A school that survives its founder is one where the founder deliberately taught other people to run it.
Quick answers
- Who was H.K. Lee?
- Hyeon Kon Lee (1947–2026), known as H.K. Lee, was a Korean-born 9th Dan Kukkiwon taekwondo grandmaster who ran the H.K. Lee Academy of TaeKwonDo in Herndon, Virginia, from 1978.
- When did H.K. Lee die?
- He died on 26 September 2026, aged 79. His family announced his death on his Facebook page.
- When did H.K. Lee come to the United States?
- He arrived in Herndon, Virginia on 10 February 1976, at the invitation of Grandmaster Chan Hak Park, and took over Park’s school on 1 October 1978.
- What rank did H.K. Lee hold?
- 9th Dan from the Kukkiwon, the world taekwondo headquarters.
- Who are the Lee brothers of taekwondo?
- H.K. Lee’s brothers, whom he brought to the United States and trained. They built schools across North Carolina, including Grandmaster K.S. Lee in Cary and Grandmaster Jun Lee in Raleigh and Knightdale.
Sources, and what we could not confirm
His death is confirmed by his family’s announcement on his personal Facebook page (Hyeon Kon Lee, @Hkleetkd). That announcement does not give the date, place or cause. The date of 26 September 2026 and the Washington, D.C. area as the place were supplied to Martial Arts Professional along with the family’s statement. The cause of death has not been made public and is not reported here. The survivors named here are those in the family’s own statement and the academy’s published family history.
Sources: the H.K. Lee Academy of TaeKwonDo’s published history, “Our Journey So Far,” and its family page (hkleetkdfamily.com); “Herndon’s H.K. Lee Recognized,” Herndon Connection, 26 September 2014; “태권도엑스포 참가 워싱턴 HK태권도 이현곤 관장,” Jeonbuk Ilbo (jjan.kr), July 2009; “美 원조 태권도 명가… ‘이 브라더스’를 아시나요?”, Mookas; and the Wikipedia biography of Jun Hyeog Lee.
Where the record disagrees with itself. The founding date: the Herndon Connection says Lee founded the academy in 1973, and the academy’s slogan says “since 1973”. The academy’s own history says 1973 is when Chan Hak Park opened the school and that Lee took it over on 1 October 1978. The 2009 Korean profile gives 1979. We follow the academy’s history. Birth order: the academy’s family page calls him the oldest of six brothers; Mookas calls him the second son; Jun Lee’s biography calls Jun the third of six sons. We have not stated his place in the family. Birth year: no birth date has been published. The 1947 year follows the dates supplied with his death and is consistent with the 2009 Korean profile, which gave his age as 62.
Attributed, not independently verified: his father’s roles as postmaster and legislator come from the family’s own history; the count of about fifty family-connected schools comes from Mookas; enrollment figures come from the academy and the 2014 local report. The 2014 report’s statements about AAU and U.S. Olympic Committee recognition in 1974 and 1978 are unclear as to whether they refer to his school or to taekwondo generally, and are left out.
Photographs. We have not yet obtained a photograph we have permission to publish. We would welcome one from the family or the academy.
Corrections. See our editorial policy. If you trained with Grandmaster Lee and can add to or correct this record, we want to hear from you.