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→ Won Chik Park

Won Chik Park is a 9th degree Korean Taekwondo martial arts grandmaster living in the United States.

Park held positions in the Texas chapter of USA Taekwondo (formerly the U.S. TaeKwonDo Union).

Biography
Won Chik Park was born 15 May 1940 in Hae Joo City, Korea (in what is now the DMZ separating North and South Korea), the seventh of nine children. He and his older sister Young Soon escaped the incursion of communist North Korean troops in December 1950. Their parents and many of their family members were killed the same night of their escape. They lived with their father's cousin Ki Hoon Sung for the next few years on Yeon Pyong Do island. After the Korean War ended in 1952, they and their older brother Ung Chik, who was in the Korean army, moved to Gun San. Later, his brother was reassigned, and in 1954, Park moved to Incheon to live with him and his new wife.

After the war, Taekwondo masters began re-opening martial arts schools, these having been forbidden during the Japanese occupation of Korea. Park began studying under Grandmaster Hyong Chong Park in 1954, within the Pusan Taekwondo (Kong Soo Do) Jidokwan style. He earned first and second degree black belts (dan) within the next three years, and third dan in 1960 at the age of 20.

He enlisted in the ROK army for mandatory military service, and after basic training, was assigned to Army headquarters in Non San. There he was offered the opportunity to train officers in Taekwondo. This led to his assignment in 1965 with the U.S. 8th Division Army to train American soldiers in Seoul. While there, he arranged for the first annual American Military Taekwondo Championship to be held, bringing together U.S. and Korean martial arts students from several bases across South Korea in sparring competition. This led to the formation of the annual Foreigners Tournaments by the Korea Taekwondo Association (KTA). One of Park's black belt students won the first place trophy.

In 1968, Park opened his own taekwondo school in Seoul. The opening of his dojang was attended by Grandmaster Chong Woo Lee, president of the Korea Taekwondo Jidokwan Association. During his time as a military trainer in Seoul, Park's assistant instructor was Jin-Song Chung. While there, Park met and trained Roy Kurban, an army specialist at the time who had already earned a black belt in karate. Kurban competed in the second KTA Foreigners Tournament in 1970 at Chang Cheun Gym in Seoul.

In November 1970, Park married Yunbok, a young woman from Incheon. In 1971 they had a daughter, Suyun. Park earned his 6th dan promotion that same year.

In 1972, at the urging of his friends and colleagues, Park left for the United States at the invitation of one of his former military students who had returned to the States. Park's assistant Jin-Song Chung took over as lead trainer of his Army instruction classes. Park resided Los Angeles for three months, during which time he worked as an assistant instructor at a taekwondo school in Thousand Oaks. Still needing a sponsor for his stay in the U.S., he moved to Detroit at the invitation of Master Ho Young Chung, a friend from Korea who had since immigrated to the U.S. While there, he was asked by the FBI to train a few of their agents in hand-to-hand combat. He later opened his own dojang. There he trained Richard Plowden, who became the national heavyweight grand champion in a United States Taekwondo Championship tournament.

In 1974, after being granted his permanent resident visa for the U.S., Park's wife and daughter moved from Korea to rejoin him in Detroit. They had a son, Sae Jun ("John" in English), in 1976. In 1978, with the help of Roy Kurban, they moved to Ft. Worth, where Park established a new school, the Won Park Institute of Taekwondo. In 1980, he, his wife, and his daughter all became U.S. citizens.

In 1980, Park was offered a position to teach martial arts at Texas Christian University. The next year, he organized an intercollegiate competition among the universities and dojangs in Texas, naming it the Fort Worth Invitational Taekwondo Tournament. Later that year, Park also organized the Texas Taekwondo Organization, bringing all of the dojangs in Texas together under one organization. This organization took part in the process of making taekwondo an official Olympic event.

Park earned his 8th dan in 1984 at age 44, achieving grandmaster ranking. Grandmaster Kim Soo, an 8th dan from Houston, presented Park his grandmaster certification.

In 1986, Park was appointed chairman of the United States National Taekwondo Championship tournament, to be held in Anaheim, California. As a result of the tournament, taekwondo debuted as a demonstration sport at the 1988 Summer Olympics and again in 1992. Two years later, Park organized the 1990 Junior Olympic Taekwondo Championships. In 1993, Park accompanied the U.S. Taekwondo team to the third annual World Games held in The Hague, Netherlands. By this time, 63 countries were training taekwondo teams for international competition, and the United States Olympic Committee (USOC) recognized that the organization and regulations of all of these countries were sufficiently consistent that taekwondo was ready to be accepted as an official medal sport at the 2000 Summer Olympics.

Park received his 9th dan promotion from Kukkiwon in December 1993 at age 53.

In 2003, Park established the United States Taekwondo Grandmaster Society (USTGS), with membership open to anyone who had achieved official grandmaster status within any taekwondo organization. Later, he organized an effort to lay the foundations for the USTGS Museum and Hall of Fame, a place to retain the records of the history, achievements, and key individuals of taekwondo. The first inductees into the Hall of Fame included Grandmaster Chung Eun Kim for literary achievement as founder of the Tae Kwon Do Times, and Grandmaster Chuck Norris as Ambassador of Taekwondo.

Rank promotions

 * 1st dan, 1955 (age 15)
 * 2nd dan, 1956 (age 16)
 * 3rd dan, 1960 (age 20)
 * 4th dan, 1964 (age 24)
 * 5th dan, 1968 (age 27) – Master
 * 6th dan, 1971 (age 31)
 * 7th dan, 1976 (age 36)
 * 8th dan, 1984 (age 44) – Grandmaster
 * 9th dan, 1993 (age 53)

Notable achievements

 * Founded the Fort Worth International Taekwondo Championship, 1981
 * Founder and first President of the Texas State Taekwondo Association (now part of USA Taekwondo), 1981
 * Letter of Commendation, Kukkiwon (Seoul, Korea), 1983
 * Chairman, United States Taekwondo Union, Tournament Committee, 1986–1988
 * Chairman, National Board of Martial Arts, United States Taekwondo Union
 * Achievement Award, World Taekwondo Federation, President Un Yong Kim, 1990
 * Achieved rank of 9th dan (Kukkiwon), 1993
 * Coach of the Year, United States Taekwondo Union, 1995
 * Founder and Chairman, Pan Am Foundation Masters of Taekwondo, 1999–2005
 * Inducted into the Texas Martial Arts Hall of Fame, Outstanding Leadership, 2001
 * Founder and first President, United States Taekwondo Grandmasters Society (USTGS), 2003–2008
 * Proclamation, "Grandmaster Won Chik Park Day", City of Fort Worth, 15 October 2005
 * Presidential Sports Award, President George W. Bush, 2005
 * Achievement Award, World Taekwondo Jidokwan, 60th anniversary, 2006
 * Inducted into the U.S. Taekwondo Grandmasters Society Hall of Fame, 2010
 * Proclamation, "Grandmaster Won Chik Park Day", State of Texas, 15 May 2010

Published works

 * , a memoir of Won Chik Park (introduction by Roy D. Kurban)