Ed Parker
Hawaiian martial arts teacher (1931–1990), creator of American Kenpo and organizer of the Long Beach International Karate Championships tournament.
Quick Facts
United StatesBiography
Ed Parker, born Edmund Kealoha Parker, was a Hawaiian martial arts teacher and the creator of American Kenpo. He was born on 19 March 1931 in Honolulu and died there on 15 December 1990 at the age of 59 of a heart attack after arriving at the airport.
According to the account of his father, passed on by Will Tracy, he began judo at twelve and in 1949 earned the 1st dan in it. He trained Kenpo in the early nineteen-fifties under William K. S. Chow. In a book from 1982 Parker himself names Frank, the brother of Chow, as his first teacher, which Tracy questions. Sonny Emperado recalled that Parker trained with him for about two weeks before Chow.
After service in the Coast Guard he studied at Brigham Young University in Provo, where he founded a Kenpo club in 1955. In September 1956 he founded the Kenpo Karate Association of America, and in February 1957 he opened a studio in Pasadena. The International Kenpo Karate Association was founded later, in 1962 according to English Wikipedia and at the end of 1963 according to Tracy. Among other books he wrote Kenpo Karate: Law of the Fist and the Empty Hand (1960), Secrets of Chinese Karate (1963) and the five-volume series Infinite Insights into Kenpo (1982–1987).
In 1964 he organized the first Long Beach International Karate Championships, where Bruce Lee demonstrated the one-inch punch. His students included Elvis Presley, who received a black belt from him, and Parker wrote the book Inside Elvis (1978) about him. He also appeared in film and television, and Black Belt documents an episode of The Lucy Show from 1963 and the film The Wrecking Crew from 1968. We have not found a quotation from Ed Parker with a traceable origin.
Early life
Ed Parker was born on 19 March 1931 in Honolulu. According to the account of his father, passed on by Will Tracy, his father enrolled him in judo at twelve, and he earned the 1st dan at eighteen, a week before his high school graduation in 1949. In his book from 1982 Parker states that his first Kenpo teacher, at about sixteen, was Frank Chow, the brother of William K. S. Chow. Tracy objects that Parker did not speak of Frank Chow before 1964 and that William Chow never mentioned a brother. He studied at Brigham Young University from the autumn of 1949 to the summer of 1951.
Training and teachers
After the outbreak of the Korean War he joined the Coast Guard in 1951, although Tracy denies that he was drafted, as the book of Parker states. According to Sonny Emperado, whose words Tracy quotes from the book Memories of Ed Parker, Parker trained in early 1952 for about two weeks with Emperado and then with William K. S. Chow. After his discharge in August 1954 he returned to Brigham Young University, where according to Tracy he founded the BYU Kenpo Club in May 1955 and held the first demonstration on 2 December 1955. He completed his studies on 2 June 1956.
Contribution and innovations
In September 1956 he founded the Kenpo Karate Association of America, and in February 1957 he opened a studio on Walnut Street in Pasadena. The book Kenpo Karate: Law of the Fist and the Empty Hand was published by Delsby in 1960, and English Wikipedia gives 1961 as well in its text. Among the later books were Secrets of Chinese Karate (1963), Inside Elvis (1978) and the five volumes of the series Infinite Insights into Kenpo from 1982 to 1987. In 1964 he organized the first Long Beach International Karate Championships. According to Black Belt, Bruce Lee demonstrated the one-inch punch there, which aroused the interest of Hollywood, including the series The Green Hornet.
Legends and documented facts
English Wikipedia states that he received his Kenpo black belt in 1953. Will Tracy writes that a circulating printed certificate from 1953 does not fit the other records, because Chow did not issue printed certificates. According to a book by Corcoran and Farkas from 1988, Wikipedia states that in 1954 he opened the first karate school in the western US in Provo, but Tracy writes that he began teaching non-Polynesian students only in January 1956. On the founding of the International Kenpo Karate Association, the end of 1963 given by Tracy stands against 1962 from Wikipedia. In the dispute over the first black belt holder of Parker, between Charles Beeder and James Ibrao, Tracy decides in favor of Ibrao according to the KKAA records, but he himself belongs to the family of the students of Parker.
Legacy
Elvis Presley was his student and received a black belt from him. According to Black Belt, Mike Stone lived for six months in the home of Parker and taught the strategy of tournament fighting in his classes. Black Belt featured Parker on its cover for the first time in 1975 and in April 1991 devoted a memorial issue to him. He died on 15 December 1990 in Honolulu at the age of 59 of a heart attack after arriving at the airport, and English Wikipedia refers to an obituary in the Los Angeles Times. For film and television, Black Belt documents his appearance in an episode of The Lucy Show from 1963 and in the film The Wrecking Crew from 1968.
Teachers, students and family
Associated Martial Arts
Organisations
- International Kenpo Karate Association (IKKA)Founder · 1962