Great Grandmaster Frederick J. Villari, founder of Shaolin Kempo Karate, has passed away. He brought, at least, thousands to martial arts and lives on in his style, his students, and his students' students.
Mister Villari was originally a draftsman, worked for the father of one of my students. One day he put in his two weeks notice and told his co-workers he was going to open Martial Arts schools all over the country and make a fortune.While it was David Carradine that first peeked my interest in martial arts, it was a kempo school that I first stepped foot in. I met a lot of good people while there. For all the controversy, you got to hand it to Fred he wanted to turn karate into a huge money making buisness and he succeeded there.