I sat on so many promotional boards with Mr. Parker.  I remember when we would see a student that should not have been at the test or was not ready to be promoted.  Mr. Parker would say to the student’s instructor if you think I am going to fail your student in front of family and friends, you are wrong!  In fact, you as the instructor will fail tonight for not having him/her ready for this test. So many times I heard Mr. Parker say, “This is a review of what you know, not a test.  Have fun!”. The instructor was told to have the student over prepared for the next test, please.  And that was all that was needed to be said and the response was always the same, “yes.” 

One of the many things I remember about Mr. Parker in all the classes I saw him teach, he never asked a student a question the student could not answer.  I remember him stopping me after I performed a technique in a Thursday night class saying, “That was great, Jack but have you ever thought of doing it like this”. He was brilliant about not making us feel bad or discouraged about what we did.

 I now know that it was the one minute manager training all over again.  Catch a student doing something good and then you can correct them without them feeling bad.  He was great at doing that.  I know now that his teaching style was based upon the example of Jesus Christ.  He really loved our Lord Jesus and tried to lead that lifestyle to the best of his ability to the end.  

About 2 months after the funeral several black belts and the Parker family met at a small theatre in Santa Monica for the premiere of Mr. Parker and Jeff Speakman’s movie the “The Perfect Weapon”.  I remember the pride I felt when I saw my entire Saturday morning kids class in the movie.  I know it was the little kids that Mr. Parker loved so much.  To see Jeff bring the Kenpo karate we all love to life on the big screen was almost too much to ask for.  I know Mr. Parker was there that night with all of us.  I could feel his spirit as I have so many times since his passing.  My two sons, Anthony and Angelo were with me and after the movie we all went out to the lobby to say hello to Jeff.  As always he picked up my two boys and gave them a big hug.  So many little and big kids have looked up to Jeff since the movie came out.  I hope Jeff knows how proud he has made the Kenpo Karate family.  Great job, Jeff, my Kenpo brother. Thank you for making my sons feel so special that night.  May God always bless you.

At this point we saw Mrs. Parker and the family after our usual hugs.  We decided to walk them out to their car.  On the way to the parking lot Mrs. Parker said and did something, I will never forget.  She said Jack, “Please hold out your hand”.  She took my hand and dropped something into it.  I looked down and saw it was the TCB necklace Elvis Presley had given to Mr. Parker.  Mrs. Parker said, “My husband wants you to have this”.  I said with tears running down my face, “Mrs. Parker, don’t you know anyone else more special to give this too?”  She simply said,” no we don’t”.  I think I said something like. “Thanks from the bottom of my heart”.  To this day I wear this necklace to anything that has to do with Kenpo Karate and many other places.

To those of you who may not know about the necklace, TCB and TLC necklaces were given by Elvis to those close and dear to him.  TCB “Taking Care of Business” pendants were given to his male friends and TLC “Tender Loving Care” necklaces were given to his female friends as designations of those who were members of the King’s court.  The TCB and TLC’s were solid gold and were unmistakable, to my recollection only 250 including both TCB and TLC pendants were given out from 1973 up until the time of his death.  The initials TCB meant a lot to Elvis, it was the motto and philosophy that he lived by.  TCB was painted on the tail of his jet, placed on this TV sets, on the jackets of the members of his security team, as a fitting memorial, it is engraved on his tombstone at Graceland.

It was approximately 1966 when I saw the Kenpo Karate sign on Santa Monica Boulevard.  I went into the school, not knowing anything about Karate.  Sitting behind the desk, was Mr. Parker.  I walked in and asked him, “What is Karate?”  He looked at me and said, “What do you know about fighting?”  I said, “Well, I’m not sure what you mean?”  He said, “Have you ever been in a street fight?”  “Well, yeah.  I was born in the projects in Buffalo, NY and I remember, getting into 2 fights, when I was very young.  Then I moved to El Monte, CA. and really learned what fighting was all about.  The high school I went to was called Arroyo High School.  In 1957-58, there was a large fight that broke out in the school and the police were called.  Three days later, the principal called me into his office and said there were five Hispanic young men in the next room and they said you beat them up.  I said, Five of them? He said, ‘Yes, I’m very sorry but I will have to suspend you for 3 days’”.  So, Mr. Parker said, “I get the idea you can take care of yourself”.  “I guess I can”, I replied.  “So, what is Karate?”  Mr. Parker said, “Come into the mat area? And I will show you.  Ok now, I want you to hit me in the face as hard as you can”.  “You want what?” “You heard me.  Please try to hit me as hard as you can”.  Well, I threw a ½ speed punch to his face and Mr. Parker said, “My grandmother can hit harder than that”.  Well, I got it. At that point, I threw the old John Wayne punch from out of right field at high speed to his face.  The next thing I knew, I was on my back, looking up at Mr. Parker, smiling at me.  I said, “What was that?”  He said, “That was Kenpo Karate”.  I said, “Where do I sign?”

I’ve always been a very active and successful street fighter, but this was more than I could believe.   I was 26 years old, bought a gi and started training 6 days a week until 5 years later when I became an Ed Parker black belt ready to fight anyone, anywhere that Mr. Parker wanted me to fight. 

I remember what Mr. Parker said the first day I met him, “you are a very good fighter but I will make you a great fighter if you will become a loyal student of mine”.

Having an open mind doesn’t necessarily lead to perfection, it is your ability observing, analyzing, discerning and understanding the true essence that basic principles contain that point the way to perfection.

My white belt training started the very next Monday.  I had bought a karate gi the same day I had met Mr. Parker.  Back then there were no colored belts from white belt to brown belt, they just put a black stripe on your white belt until you got to brown.  I remember not too long after I started training, now mind you, I was training 5-6 days per week, I had received two black stripes on my white belt and Mr. Parker came into the west LA school and asked me to come out of the class for a minute.  He sat me down in the office and with that Ed Parker look, he said, “Jack, I know that you have been training very hard and I can see that you are moving up the ranks to brown belt very fast but, I have a very large favor to ask of you?” 

Well things got very quiet and I could not wait to hear what he was going to say.  Remember this was the only man that could throw me down onto my back after I tried to hit him as hard as I could,  I had so much respect for him, I guess I would do anything he asked of me.  He then said, “Jack I have just completed what I am calling colored belts.  I would like you to start all over again and learn my new material, yellow, orange, purple, green and then brown belt and we have three brown belts before you go to black belt.  I thought for a while and said that sounds like maybe 5 years to make it to black belt.  He said I think that sounds about right.  I said there is nothing in this world that I want more than to be an Ed Parker Kenpo karate black belt.  If this is what you want me to do, my answer is, yes sir, I will be very happy to start over again.  Now where is that new material?  He said, there is one more thing I would like you to do.  At that point, I could not wait to hear the next request.  I would like you, for part of your promotion to yellow belt, to write down every technique with every move, every block, every stance and every foot maneuver, this will be part of your test requirement to yellow belt.   I said, no problem, it was my pleasure.  He had such a presence about him that I could not say anything but yes, sir and it was truly an honor to do whatever he asked me to do.

All you Kenpo people that knew Mr. Parker know just what I am talking about.  There was something very spiritual about Mr. Parker of which I did not understand until after his funeral some 24 years later.  I cannot put into words how much I miss him and how much I love him and how much he changed my life for the better.  I wanted to be just a little bit like him but I could not until I found what he had and that was a personal relationship with our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.  Thank you, my dear friend, for leading me indirectly to Him.  I cannot wait to see you on the other side of this life and eternity with Jesus.  For the bible says, if we truly believe in Him we will spend 1000 years here on the new earth with Him and all our loved ones that also believe in him. 

I received a phone call from Ed Parker Jr. between 5 and 6am Sunday morning.  Ed Jr. told me his dad had died at the Hawaii airport.  “What do you mean?”… I said.  “I was just with him yesterday and into the early evening.  Say it is not true.” I was instantly depressed.  As soon as I got off the phone, I started to cry, uncontrollably.  I went into the bathroom, so I would not wake up my wife Nancy or our two sons, Anthony and Angelo.  That didn’t work.   In less than ten minutes, the bathroom door opened and there was my 8 year old son Anthony, seeing his dad cry for the first time in his young life.  I tried to comfort him and put him in bed with Nancy.  I went downstairs to call Brian Hawkins, Jeff Speakman, Tony Martin, and Barbara Hale.  All of us trained every Thursday night in the W. L.A. school with Mr. Parker.  We all decided to meet at Jeff’s apartment in Santa Monica later that day to talk and support each other to the best of our ability.

I started to think about everything that happened yesterday, Saturday, at the W. Los Angeles school.  We had 2 seminars that were taught by Mr. Parker.  The first one was for our kids, 5 to 12 years old.  All the kids showed up to be with Mr. Parker, including my two sons Anthony, then 8yrs old and a purple belt and his little brother, Angelo, who was only 4 years old and a white belt. 

When Mr. Parker showed up, the class and I were anxiously waiting for him to start teaching.  He called me up to be his dummy, which had done numerous times over the years.  At that point, I had been studying with Mr. Parker for over 23 years.  But, something was very different today; he was not at all himself.  The first technique he demonstrated on me was Five Swords, one of the most popular techniques of all kenpoists.  I stepped toward him with my right foot as I threw a right hand vertical punch to his face, as I have done so many times in the past.  He blocked like he always did, with his right arm, to my right forearm and then he hit me, in the face with his right hand sword, so hard that he split my lip, from the inside as my teeth, hit my inner lip.  The blood was running inside my mouth and I was swallowing it as fast as I could, so the kids would not see any blood on my face.  Mr. Parker looked at me with that look that says, thank you and I’m so very sorry for that.  In hindsight that was my last going away present from my dear friend.  I knew then he was not doing well, at all.  He and I recovered quickly and no only else knew what had happened.

When the class was over Mr. Parker walked very quickly over to a nearby bench and sat down.  I walked over to him and he asked me with a very sincere look on his face,  “How did I do, Jack?”

If I may use a line from Mr. Parker’s book Inside Elvis, as I looked into his eyes the pathway to his soul was open, he was reaching out, for help not sympathy.  I was powerless to help him, and it grieved me.  There’s no more helpless feeling, than to stand by a friend, you want to help and not know how.  There was a terrible feeling of urgency, to do something, anything.

Now, remember he is the 10^th degree Grandmaster of the International Kenpo Karate Association and I was only a 4^th degree black belt at that time.  This was the last day Mr. Parker was to be in the dojo on this side of eternity.

Many black belts today should learn to be as humble as Mr. Parker was on his last day on this earth, after all.  He had given this world, I can hear, well done my son.

Knowing what I know about Mr. Parker, he is on the other side, working out with his very dear friend, Elvis Presley.  After Mr. Parker asked me, how did I do?  I assured him the kids thought he was great!  He said Jack, I can’t thank you enough, you have always been such a loyal friend.  At that moment all of the kids, came by to shake his hand, and thank him for the class.  The last one to come by was my son, Anthony, as he thanked Mr. Parker.  Mr. Parker said, “Here is your certificate, for the class and may I have your purple belt, for a moment?  Then Anthony took off his belt, and gave it to Mr. Parker.  He then signed the belt and gave it back to Anthony. At that time Mr. Parker, heard little Angelo, crying in the back of the room, he said, Angelo, come here please, what is wrong?   Angelo, said, “I’m not going to get a certificate, for the class, because I was told to stay in the back of the room.”  Mr. Parker asked, Were you in the room for this whole class?  And Angelo said, Yes, Sir, I was.  Then come over here and get your certificate and please let me see your white belt.  Mr. Parker signed the belt and gave the belt and certificate to Angelo.  You should have seen the look, in both of their faces, at that moment.  I will never forget, the passion and love Ed Parker had for everyone but especially the little kids.

Those two belts are the last known signatures that Mr. Parker gave to anyone.  They are in my safe.  It is impossible to look at them and not think of this wonderful, last day of Mr. Parker’s life that he spent with me and my two youngest sons.

After the teaching was over we all were invited to a Christmas party dinner at one of the student’s home on December 15, 1990.

I remember being with Mr. Parker, eating at the party, he had just picked up a very large bowl of Chili with lots of meat in it.  He looked at me and said, “ I know what you are about to say.  It is the same thing you have been saying about what I eat for the last ten years.”  Yes, Ed.  I know you have heard me say this before but you and I know, that you are not doing very well.  Ever since the 1988 tribute that we had for you, you have been going down hill and I am very worried about you.  Jack, “I know how you feel. But I am leaving from here to pick up my wife and we are going to LAX to fly to Hawaii for 2 weeks.  That will recharge my batteries again and I will be as good as new.  I do have some concerns about my mother, who is getting up there in years and not feeling very well.  I had this strange feeling that I am not going to see, her again.  The fact is that he did not see his mother because he died, at the airport before he could see her.  She said later, it was just like Ed to come home to die so we here in Hawaii, could have a funeral for him at his home.  Ed Parker always said, “That my heart is in Hawaii but my pocket book is in California.”

It was now time for Mr. Parker to say his good byes to everyone at the party.  Then Randy Streeter and I walked him out to his car.  Randy said, “Goodbye Ed”.  And I gave him the last Kenpo big bear hug, for all of us, who really knew him and loved him, for the great God fearing man that he is.  I then said something to him that I had never said before.  In over 23 years of saying goodbye or I’ll see you later.  I said, “God Speed my dear friend”.  I unknowingly gave him the last goodbye from the Kenpo family that loved him so very much.

A few short hours later, I received the phone call from Edmund Jr. that Mr. Parker had died. 

In the summer of 1990, we had Mr. Parker come to Missoula, Montana, for a seminar.  In order to draw more interest in the seminar, I ran an ad in the local newspaper.  I received a call from a lady that lived just north of us in the Flathead Valley.  She asked if she and a friend could attend to say hi to Mr. Parker. She mentioned she had met Mr. Parker 20 years ago at Elvis’ house and had not seen him since and would just like to pay their respects. I talked to her for a while and found that she had only seen Mr. Parker that one time but that they had spent a whole afternoon with him and really enjoyed their time with him. I thought it would be a good thing so I told her to come on down to the seminar. Although the women had contacted me about a month prior to the seminar, I had forgotten to tell Mr. Parker she was coming.

On the day of the seminar the ladies showed up as we were finishing the seminar and waited until we were done before they came in.  Mr. Parker was signing some belts but as soon as he saw them come in he excused himself and went right over to them and gave them a big hug and started to ask them about their families. He remembered their names and the names of their husbands and their kids. He had only met them once 20 years earlier for one afternoon. How in the world had he remembered them after so much time? I have a hard time remembering people soon after meeting them, so it seemed strange to me that Mr. Parker could remember someone he met but once 20 years ago. After they left I asked Mr. Parker about this and he said “Chris, when you remember a person’s name it makes them feel important to you.” Now I figured that there had to be some kind of trick he used to help him remember people so I asked Mr. Parker how  he remembered people and he just looked at me like I was very dim and said, “people are important to me.”

This is just one of the many things that made Mr. Parker so special. He always treated people like they mattered to him and as he said it was because they did. Whenever you were with Mr. Parker he would always give you his undivided attention. He always made you feel special and I truly believe that was because to him we were all special.  I will always cherish the small amount of time my wife and I were able to spend with Mr. Parker and he will always hold a special place in our hearts.

We miss you Mr. Parker.

Chris and Pattie Crews

After learning about Mr. Parker’s passing a few of us were gathered together at Jeff Speakman’s apartment, trying to figure things out.  We decided to meet at the West Los Angeles School Thursday night as always for Mr. Parker’s Brown and Black Belt classes.  So many people showed up but no one put on a gi.  It was wall to wall students and friends of Mr. Parker.  We talked about the funeral that was to be the next Saturday in Pasadena.  A lot of people tried to talk about Mr. Parker but it was too hard for most of us to get the words out.  Then Randy Streeter wanted to say something and Brian Hawkins and I got on each side of Randy because if you know Randy, you never know what he is going to say or how he is going to say it.  Randy started to talk, like we have never heard him talk before, he spoke of how Mr. Parker took him in when he had no money and no place to live.  Randy said he just wanted to learn Kenpo Karate.  Mr. Parker let him workout in the Pasadena school and slept there when needed.  Randy said, “I couldn’t read or write, but Mr. Parker didn’t care about that, at all.  I sincerely wanted to learn and he was going to help me.  He saved my life and he made my life.  I will never forget him or stop loving him because he loved me first. No one ever did that for me.  I will miss him forever and ever”. Brian and I just looked at each other and wiped the tears from our cheeks and gave Randy that Kenpo bear hug, that he deserved so much.  Randy taught all of us something that night.  There was not a dry eye in the school.  That last Thursday night, My God, we miss you and love you, Mr. Parker.

The man in black with the silver hair,

Weaves mystic patterns in the air,

Moving fast, moving slow,

A powerful aura is aglow.

Dragon and Tiger dance as one,

On the Universal pattern, Motion,

A deadly Art, all aflame,

This “Dance of Death” is no game.

The Law of the Fist and Empty Hand,

He’s wedded to, in timeless sands,

Forever executing his Mystic Dance,

Forever in his dynamic trance,

The man in black, with the silver hair,

The leader of leaders, none to compare,

His name’s Ed Parker, Master and Friend,

His spirit lives on, and will never end.

Gary Ellis December 1990

Jack Autry, close family friend

During the viewing, it was extremely difficult watching some of the biggest, baddest fighters in the world breakdown in tears as they paid respect to Mr. Parker.  Tears rolled down my cheeks when I saw Mr. Parker, resting so peacefully, in his casket, his hair neatly combed and his right hand neatly folded over his left hand at the waist.  This took almost 4 hours and we finally had to close the door to start the services.

At that funeral as all of Mr. Parker’s Kenpo Karate family assembled we saw another large group in attendance that none of were aware of.  Later we found out they were church members from his congregation.  We all learned that day that as well known as Mr. Parker was in Kenpo Karate, he was also well known among church members.

It was so interesting to me it was almost like a man who lived two lives. I never thought the same about Mr. Parker after that day.  I was a little unhappy because I did not know that side of him very well, but I see through the years that there was much more to Mr. Parker than 10th degree black belt and I wanted what he had.  I really respected that he never smoke or drank anything, he would have to get real mad to use any four letter words and most of all the man truly loved his family.  I really respected that and I wanted to be like him.  He taught me so much in all those years but I have learned much more about life since his passing.

I have so many questions for him and our Lord, Jesus Christ, when I get on the other side. By no means, am I trying to parallel their lives for Mr. Parker had many human flaws.  Although Mr. Parker was far from perfect, he loved the Lord and tried to follow him.  Mr. Parker was a missionary without realizing it.  The full extent of his influence for good throughout the world may never be fully realized but his impact is immediately apparent in the Kenpo Karate world.

Another thing that really impressed me at the funeral service was how his children could go up in front of thousands of people in the church and talk about their dad.  I wanted what the Parker family had.  Each Parker child that spoke made me cry.  I had to move so that no one would see me.  Little did I know that most of the people in the church were crying also. I learned from Mr. Parker and my Kenpo brothers, how to fight any man and never be afraid but the true battle in life is not against man for our enemy is not flesh and blood but we wrestle against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, again spiritual wickedness in high places.  Ephesians 6:12.

This was it!  This was the final chapter of Mr. Ed Parker, death had overcome his body but Ed Parker knew as he discussed many times with Elvis, that death was a re-birth into another sphere of learning and development and that he had read about it.  They had often spoken of the body, no more than a robe that clothed a spirit.  Now, Mr. Parker’s body was before us and he had experienced this transformation, he had returned from the mortal to the spiritual.  His mortal body was now disrobed from his spirit.  My turn is yet to come, time would place me in the same realm that Mr. Parker was now in.  He no longer had to suffer the frailties of the flesh.  No more hardships, no more worries, it was all behind him.  As I prepare to leave, I bid him farewell, saying in my mind, that we would meet again, when my time comes.

This day was to write an end to an illustrious era that had lasted for more than four decades. As the service concluded at the church, my car was the first car behind the Parker family car.  I made it a point to be as close to them as I could for the entire day. We arrived at the cemetery and I think the line of cars went all the way from the church to the burial site.

When we finally got to the gravesite I found myself standing and supporting Mr. Parker’s brother Joe, watching my friend carrying Mr. Parker to the gravesite.  We stood there; two grown men crying openly both hoping the tears would release the tension and settle our emotions. The service at the gravesite was fairly brief and ended with all of us giving him one final salute and bow to our teacher and dear friend.  I thought of a song “I’ll remember you” by Don Ho.  I choked with emotion.

Jack Autry

My Master and Relative is the wrong use of words. Mr. Parker still lives on in our minds, in our studios, and in our teaching. We see him every day. Life without our Master is like not having the sun to see our way, or the moon to give us vision. Mr. Parker is recognized as the Father of Karate in the United States. Hawaii is the 50th state. So we as islanders are proud of this great man and the fact that Mr. Parker lives on in our everyday life. Thank you for being our mentor. And thank you for your Aloha.

Forever your student: Fred Brewster