In 1976 Kurt Barnhart walked into my studio on 103rd Street in Palos Hills, IL. I had met Kurt briefly years before when I was working at another studio. He started with me and continued, eventually taking his first black test with Mr. Parker on the board. Kurt took the bull by the horns when I moved to Florida in 1991 and kept a club running. Today that club has the children of the students who studied with me working toward higher levels of proficiency.
Over the weekend I promoted Kurt to 7th. I did this in the presence of many of the same people who were there when Ed Parker would come to teach and test our people. To name a few; Don Rushing, Tom McLennan, Ron Allen, Bob Weaver, Jim Tucker, Rick Vecchi and Barb Barnhart. Zoran Sevic and David Zorich were there, too. Zoran started with me in 1981 and is now a 5th under Tom Saviano (McSweeney lineage) and David and I did judo together at his father's dojo when we were kids.
As I told the group, Kurt has been in the arts a long time (and AT the arts as long), has continued to train and contribute to the arts and considers it an honor to teach. His committment shows and his efforts to foster goodwill in the martial arts community was demonstrated by the linkage of our group with the Danzan-Ryu jiu-jitsu group that works at the Center for the Martial Arts in Worth, IL, run by Sensei Robert Garza. You can feel the positive energy between the groups.
I was treated to a therapeutic massage by one of the black belts there after my seminar. It was fantastic. They do the restorative applications in their training and I was fortunate to get worked on. A great weekend with the Chicago people once again.
My congratulations to Mr. Barnhart.
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