Jhoon Rhee obit

Jhoon Rhee, 'father of American Taekwondo,' dies at age 86

Jhoon Rhee opened his first taekwondo school in Washington, D.C., in 1962. By the 1980s, he had 11 schools in the Washington area. 

He was not on the list.

ARLINGTON, Va. — Grandmaster Jhoon Rhee, the man known as the "father of American Taekwondo," died Monday after a long illness. He was 86.

His son, Chun Rhee, said his father died in hospice care in Arlington, Virginia, a suburb of the nation's capital.

Jhoon Rhee was a 10th-degree black belt credited with popularizing taekwondo in the United States, especially around the nation's capital, after emigrating from Korea in the 1950s. He opened his first taekwondo school in Washington, D.C., in 1962. By the 1980s, Rhee had 11 schools in the Washington area.

Rhee became friends with legendary martial artist and actor Bruce Lee and appeared in a 1973 movie titled "When Taekwondo Strikes."

He also befriended boxer Muhammad Ali. Chun Rhee said that during a 1976 sports awards ceremony, his father jokingly challenged Ali and basketball legend Wilt Chamberlain to a fight to settle which one of them was "the greatest" athlete.

"Martial arts was a way of life for him," Chun Rhee said.

Chun Rhee said funeral arrangements have not yet been finalized. He said information about a memorial service will be posted later this week.

Rhee was born on January 7, 1932, in Asan, Korea, during the period of Japanese occupation. He began training in the martial arts at age 13 in 1945 without his father's knowledge. Rhee received martial art training from Nam Tae Hi and graduated from the Chung Do Kwan. While an officer in the Korean Army, he went to the U.S. to attend Southwest Texas State College in 1956, and later returned to attend Texas to attend the University of Texas at Austin for an engineering degree.

During the 1960s, Rhee befriended Bruce Lee—a relationship from which they both benefited as martial artists. Lee taught Rhee an extraordinarily fast punch considered almost impossible to block, something Rhee named the "accupunch".[3] During his study in Texas, Rhee issued his first U.S.-awarded black belt to Pat Burleson and his first fully US-trained student was Allen Steen, both of whom teamed up to establish the influential Southwest Black Belt Association (later the American Black Belt Association), resulting in many champions. Upon graduation from college, Rhee relocated to the East Coast and opened his first studio in the U.S. 1962 in Washington, D.C., and over time expanded to 11 studios in the DC Metro area.

In 1973, Rhee made his only martial arts movie, When Taekwondo Strikes; he also had a small role in Fist of Fury.