Long Beach Masters Speech Ed Parker Jr. Quote

Ed Parker Jr. - Long Beach, CA - keynote speech at the Martial Arts Masters Hall of Fame, 8/1/2014

"A decade before my father passed, I had my dream job working on the set of the TV show Magnum PI. My father called me and said, Son, I think I’m going to die and I need you to help me get my life’s work done.

So I did what a good son would do. I left my dream job and the beautiful islands of Hawaii. I set my focus on helping him to document his life vision and quest.

During the decade that followed, we worked together and before his passing, I invested all my talents and energy as a visualist. I created the best visuals to communicate accurately and concisely what my father could not communicate by mere words. He handed me the keys to be his eyes and ears and I was the brush in his hand.

Together we painted his vision in dozens of books, videos, and productions. I pulled out every gift and talent I had. I invested my heart and soul into the role he gave me, until I was completely spent.

The truth is that I learned martial arts to get to know my father better, and line upon line over his final decade here on earth, his vision was indelibly imprinted on my mind.

I am still haunted by his statement that if his art of Kenpo was still the same 10 years after he was gone, then we haven’t done his art justice.

It has been 30 years since he passed.

-After his passing I continued for a decade to learn from the best source available to me; the Kenpo community that he created…."