Feb. 10 - I just got back from an overflow capacity funeral for Pastor Tommy Gilbert. I've updated this post based on information provided during the services.
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A sobering part of growing older in the martial arts is seeing one's seniors pass away. The past six months have had a devastating toll on the Bay Area martial arts community, first with the passing of Hanshi Sid Campbell from cancer at age 65, then a month later the unexpected death of Master Luther Secrease from a heart attack at age 58. Last week marked the passage of another notable when Tommy Gilbert died of a massive heart attack at only age 55, just one year older than me.
As a colored belt years ago, I didn’t really get to know Tommy, but as one of the toughest fighters around, he was an old friend of my Kenpo instructor Sifu Al Thomas. A 6th Dan in Kajukenbo and former world champion point fighter, Tommy was founder of Best In The West, a school noted for turning out top fighters (eight world champions) who are just as tough on the street as in the ring; his son Damon Gilbert recently retired from the ring as a fourteen-time world champion, and is also an Oakland police officer. Damon, who is recovering from neck surgery, recounted how he successfully fought his retirement title defense only able to use one arm due to spinal injuries!
The final eulogy was delivered by grandmaster Ted Sotelo, who stated that Tommy was to have been his successor when he retires. Though I've yet to meet GM Sotelo, two of the best escrimadors I know, Ron Lew and Tom Meadows, consider him one of their mentors. In the world of martial arts, we are all connected ....
SERVICES PASTOR TOMMY LEE GILBERT
Tribute Service:
Monday, February 9, 2009
Time: 6:00-8:00 P.M.
Where:GREATER LOVE MINISTRIES
2661 Alvarado Street #7
San Leandro, Ca.
Home Going Celebration
Tuesday, February 10, 2009
Time: 10:00 A.M.
Where: Parks Chapel AME Church
476-34th Street
Oakland, Ca.
Showing posts with label Luther Secrease. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Luther Secrease. Show all posts
Monday, February 09, 2009
Thursday, November 06, 2008
Fall odds and ends
It’s been a month since I last blogged as a lot has been happening.
First I want to start with a brief memory of master Luther Secrease. It’s been a long time since I last visited Luther’s school, 1989 to be exact, and that was for an escrima seminar by Serrada master Sultan Uddin. Though he’d assisted grandmaster Angel Cabales many times over a number of years, this was Sultan’s first time on his own. Since I was local, Angel called and asked me to drop by in case Sultan needed any assistance, but when I got there, I could see he had things well in hand.
As for Luther’s funeral, it was memorable for a number of reasons. What everyone says about black churches is true; they do have the best music! The church band was a well-seasoned group of three keyboard players (acoustic and electric piano and organ), guitar, bass and drums, plus several professional singers showed up to perform gospel and soul, and a 15 year old kid who did a long jazz saxophone solo that would have made Roland Kirk proud.
In attendance was an all-star gathering of top martial artists from Northern California, including luminaries like grandmaster Byong Yu, Al Reyes, Al Colavito, Sam Montgomery (a champion fighter and former teammate of Luther’s) … the list could go on and on, as the overwhelming majority there shared Luther’s deep passion for the martial arts. Even the minister was a black belt student of Byong Yu!
Later at the graveside service, the minister made a special request for all the black belts to gather to one side. Reflecting how the military gives a 21 gun salute to fallen veterans, he said he’d like to start a new tradition amongst us martial artists, and so he had the black belts (at least 30 went to the cemetery) get into horse stances to give a 21 kiai salute, with a strong punch for each kiai. It was a moving send-off to one of the finest teachers and fighters the Bay Area has known, and I hope this does catch on as a tradition in the martial community, sending off our own in a style that can be appreciated.
Meanwhile, in the last blog I mentioned taking stock of my life and making some changes. With the weeklong hypnotherapy training session a time to be deeply reflective, and framed on either end by the deaths of two influential martial artists, I decided the time had come to act on idea that had been floating around for the past year, so I proposed to the woman to whom I’m now married! Things indeed happened rapidly once we agreed to seal the deal, and within a couple of weeks we held a small ceremony along the Bay Area shoreline at the spot where we first met. Everything fell into place, from old Kenpo compadre Bob Ernst doing the ceremony, to the unexpected appearance of Tom Meadows, my good friend from the U.S. team at the inaugural 1989 WEKAF championships, who just happened to be working nearby in Richmond for three days!
The only snafu was the engraved wedding rings we ordered from Ireland didn’t arrive. Apparently U.S. Customs decided they were a security risk and confiscated them, or so we think. The U.S. Post Office has been typically unhelpful. While the tracking number on the registered package tells us the rings arrived in the U.S. at 2:25pm on October 2, 2008, the post office says that the package can no longer be tracked with the number that provided that information. I was given a Customs number to call, which got a recording saying if I was calling because the Post Office had provided the number, that was a mistake because Customs doesn’t track individual packages it seizes, and a notice would be mailed to the sender in about 30 days (hasn’t happened yet). I contacted my congressman; I even emailed the White House. No rings arrived for our wedding, so we had to use others. Today I got a call from a postal customer service person who gave me a number to call to start a trace on international shipping. I called, and they said they couldn’t do a trace; it had to come from Ireland, where authorities there have already stated that since the package had arrived in the U.S., it was out of their jurisdiction. Aside from this bureaucratic comedy of national security proportions, things have been great.
On the escrima front, I was invited by master Darren Tibon to join a demo for halftime at a Golden State Warrior’s basketball game, but that has now apparently been pushed back to Filipino Culture Week in March. The occasion is the NBA is going to retire the jersey of the first Filipino who played in the NBA to their Hall of Fame. I believe this is Raymond Townsend, a UCLA point guard who was drafted in the second round in 1978 by the Warriors and who played for four years in the league.
I don’t mind this getting pushed back, as I have some young kids (9-14) whom I’d like to bring to the demo, and they can use the extra time to improve. I know Darren has invited some other groups to participate, to put on a strong performance, and I know how hard Darren’s guys train. Tonight I got a call from him that they actually broke one of my sticks! They’ve had it over a year; when Darren said he thought my sticks were unbreakable, I laughed and used my standard line, that the Titanic was supposed to be unsinkable. Still, I continued, how many rattan sticks do you think you would have destroyed instead of using this one? About 50 he replied. That sounds about right to me!
Closing notes: Here is an upcoming event on the blog calendar. In less than two weeks, on November 15, grandmaster Bobby Tabimina will be doing his last Balintawak seminar before returning home to the Philippines. I have tremendous respect for his abilities and style of escrima. If you can train with him, it’s a memorable experience, and a skill set that is a valuable contribution to anyone’s repertoire. This will again be in Hayward, California, and it must be pre-paid by November 11.
Finally, for those who can find it, the January 2009 edition of Inside Kung-Fu has an article by Chris Suboreau and Steve Magness on Sonny Umpad’s escrima system! It’s great to see how Sonny’s students are working to continue his legacy of Visayan Style Corto Kadena.
First I want to start with a brief memory of master Luther Secrease. It’s been a long time since I last visited Luther’s school, 1989 to be exact, and that was for an escrima seminar by Serrada master Sultan Uddin. Though he’d assisted grandmaster Angel Cabales many times over a number of years, this was Sultan’s first time on his own. Since I was local, Angel called and asked me to drop by in case Sultan needed any assistance, but when I got there, I could see he had things well in hand.
As for Luther’s funeral, it was memorable for a number of reasons. What everyone says about black churches is true; they do have the best music! The church band was a well-seasoned group of three keyboard players (acoustic and electric piano and organ), guitar, bass and drums, plus several professional singers showed up to perform gospel and soul, and a 15 year old kid who did a long jazz saxophone solo that would have made Roland Kirk proud.
In attendance was an all-star gathering of top martial artists from Northern California, including luminaries like grandmaster Byong Yu, Al Reyes, Al Colavito, Sam Montgomery (a champion fighter and former teammate of Luther’s) … the list could go on and on, as the overwhelming majority there shared Luther’s deep passion for the martial arts. Even the minister was a black belt student of Byong Yu!
Later at the graveside service, the minister made a special request for all the black belts to gather to one side. Reflecting how the military gives a 21 gun salute to fallen veterans, he said he’d like to start a new tradition amongst us martial artists, and so he had the black belts (at least 30 went to the cemetery) get into horse stances to give a 21 kiai salute, with a strong punch for each kiai. It was a moving send-off to one of the finest teachers and fighters the Bay Area has known, and I hope this does catch on as a tradition in the martial community, sending off our own in a style that can be appreciated.
Meanwhile, in the last blog I mentioned taking stock of my life and making some changes. With the weeklong hypnotherapy training session a time to be deeply reflective, and framed on either end by the deaths of two influential martial artists, I decided the time had come to act on idea that had been floating around for the past year, so I proposed to the woman to whom I’m now married! Things indeed happened rapidly once we agreed to seal the deal, and within a couple of weeks we held a small ceremony along the Bay Area shoreline at the spot where we first met. Everything fell into place, from old Kenpo compadre Bob Ernst doing the ceremony, to the unexpected appearance of Tom Meadows, my good friend from the U.S. team at the inaugural 1989 WEKAF championships, who just happened to be working nearby in Richmond for three days!
The only snafu was the engraved wedding rings we ordered from Ireland didn’t arrive. Apparently U.S. Customs decided they were a security risk and confiscated them, or so we think. The U.S. Post Office has been typically unhelpful. While the tracking number on the registered package tells us the rings arrived in the U.S. at 2:25pm on October 2, 2008, the post office says that the package can no longer be tracked with the number that provided that information. I was given a Customs number to call, which got a recording saying if I was calling because the Post Office had provided the number, that was a mistake because Customs doesn’t track individual packages it seizes, and a notice would be mailed to the sender in about 30 days (hasn’t happened yet). I contacted my congressman; I even emailed the White House. No rings arrived for our wedding, so we had to use others. Today I got a call from a postal customer service person who gave me a number to call to start a trace on international shipping. I called, and they said they couldn’t do a trace; it had to come from Ireland, where authorities there have already stated that since the package had arrived in the U.S., it was out of their jurisdiction. Aside from this bureaucratic comedy of national security proportions, things have been great.
On the escrima front, I was invited by master Darren Tibon to join a demo for halftime at a Golden State Warrior’s basketball game, but that has now apparently been pushed back to Filipino Culture Week in March. The occasion is the NBA is going to retire the jersey of the first Filipino who played in the NBA to their Hall of Fame. I believe this is Raymond Townsend, a UCLA point guard who was drafted in the second round in 1978 by the Warriors and who played for four years in the league.
I don’t mind this getting pushed back, as I have some young kids (9-14) whom I’d like to bring to the demo, and they can use the extra time to improve. I know Darren has invited some other groups to participate, to put on a strong performance, and I know how hard Darren’s guys train. Tonight I got a call from him that they actually broke one of my sticks! They’ve had it over a year; when Darren said he thought my sticks were unbreakable, I laughed and used my standard line, that the Titanic was supposed to be unsinkable. Still, I continued, how many rattan sticks do you think you would have destroyed instead of using this one? About 50 he replied. That sounds about right to me!
Closing notes: Here is an upcoming event on the blog calendar. In less than two weeks, on November 15, grandmaster Bobby Tabimina will be doing his last Balintawak seminar before returning home to the Philippines. I have tremendous respect for his abilities and style of escrima. If you can train with him, it’s a memorable experience, and a skill set that is a valuable contribution to anyone’s repertoire. This will again be in Hayward, California, and it must be pre-paid by November 11.
Finally, for those who can find it, the January 2009 edition of Inside Kung-Fu has an article by Chris Suboreau and Steve Magness on Sonny Umpad’s escrima system! It’s great to see how Sonny’s students are working to continue his legacy of Visayan Style Corto Kadena.
Thursday, October 02, 2008
Autumn reflections
First, a shout-out to Bob Sapp. I met Bob a couple of weeks ago in SoCal where we were both attending a weeklong training seminar (not martial art related)with Igor Ledochowski. I didn't know who he was, but just looking at him, I figured him for a pro football player, and he introduced himself as a former Minnesota Viking. There were some other martial artists attending this event, and the next day I floored one of them when I mentioned Bob's name. I had no idea Bob was the top K-1/MMA fighter in Japan. Bob's an interesting guy, very smart, very intense, who's into some deep concentrative meditation. Anyway, a belated happy birthday, big guy, and good luck on your journeys!
Since getting back home, things have been keeping me busy, mostly personal and family business. There was a Derobio Escrima seminar in Vallejo, hosted by Tasi Alo for his old friend Chris Siangco and his son Chaz, who came up from San Diego for the first seminar they've ever presented of this art, as they prefer to focus on developing committed students. It was a physically active and challenging event, compressing into a few hours what they consider months, if not years, of developmental training.
Meanwhile, there have been changes happening in martial arts world. Sifu Mark Gerry held a memorial party for grandmaster Sid Campbell, which was quite the all-star gathering, going late into the night. It was inspiring hearing people give testimonials for Sid, who did so much to help so many for so long.
There's a bittersweet post-script, though. Master Luther Secrease was there and I didn't get a chance to say hello. Sometime this past Sunday night or Monday morning he apparently passed away in his sleep at only age 58. Luther was a prominent TKD teacher, a former state champion tournament fighter and an outstanding member of the Bay Area martial arts community who officiated at many a tournament. I mostly knew him through my Kenpo teacher; both earned black belts in the 70's under Byong Yu, whose students had well-deserved reputations as fierce fighters.
These past few weeks I've heard so many people, and not just those connected the through martial arts community, talk of being present in the moment because we don't know what tomorrow brings. Change is in the air, as reflected in our economic turmoil and the upcoming election. It happens all the time, but time is an illusion, a construct of perception (a favorite topic of Bob Sapp) and there are times it seems to move faster. At such moments we become more aware of the impact of compressed events, such as these two losses coming so close together, which have left a huge void in the East Bay martial arts world.
As we move into the fall season I'm using this time to take stock and make some changes, mostly stopping to appreciate the good things happening in my corner of this world, and sharing some joy just being with those who are important to me. I hope you'll all do the same.
Since getting back home, things have been keeping me busy, mostly personal and family business. There was a Derobio Escrima seminar in Vallejo, hosted by Tasi Alo for his old friend Chris Siangco and his son Chaz, who came up from San Diego for the first seminar they've ever presented of this art, as they prefer to focus on developing committed students. It was a physically active and challenging event, compressing into a few hours what they consider months, if not years, of developmental training.
Meanwhile, there have been changes happening in martial arts world. Sifu Mark Gerry held a memorial party for grandmaster Sid Campbell, which was quite the all-star gathering, going late into the night. It was inspiring hearing people give testimonials for Sid, who did so much to help so many for so long.
There's a bittersweet post-script, though. Master Luther Secrease was there and I didn't get a chance to say hello. Sometime this past Sunday night or Monday morning he apparently passed away in his sleep at only age 58. Luther was a prominent TKD teacher, a former state champion tournament fighter and an outstanding member of the Bay Area martial arts community who officiated at many a tournament. I mostly knew him through my Kenpo teacher; both earned black belts in the 70's under Byong Yu, whose students had well-deserved reputations as fierce fighters.
These past few weeks I've heard so many people, and not just those connected the through martial arts community, talk of being present in the moment because we don't know what tomorrow brings. Change is in the air, as reflected in our economic turmoil and the upcoming election. It happens all the time, but time is an illusion, a construct of perception (a favorite topic of Bob Sapp) and there are times it seems to move faster. At such moments we become more aware of the impact of compressed events, such as these two losses coming so close together, which have left a huge void in the East Bay martial arts world.
As we move into the fall season I'm using this time to take stock and make some changes, mostly stopping to appreciate the good things happening in my corner of this world, and sharing some joy just being with those who are important to me. I hope you'll all do the same.
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