University of Washington

When he first went to Edison Vocation School, he took the required amount of courses to get himself enrolled at the University of Washington, in which he majored in Philosophy.

During that time he met Linda. There was, oh, probably a group, that were mostly asians, that hung around him. He was a very interesting, dominating figure. The minute he walked into a room, it was like somebody turned a light switch on and attention just sort of focused on him. Even though he didn't intend for it to be, that's how dynamic he was!

But before too long, though, we had some girls in our classes, and Linda came in our class and became one of our students. Between that and the relationship they had at school, they had some of the same classes, they became very close and I can't remember just exactly what year it was, they got married. I was very honored to be the best man!

Where Did Bruce Settle First From Hong Kong?

That is something that's really not definite in my mind. The understanding I'm getting is that he must have stopped in "San Francisco" first and then came up here. And possibly because Ruby Chow was up here. That was the firming up of things between his father and her.

How Long did Bruce Actually Live in Seattle?

It must have been--Let's see, I met him in about 1959, and he may have been a year before that, But basically, my acquaintence with him was from 1959 through about 1964 when he left Seattle. I've always said 10 years probably because he continued to come up here even when he was in California.

What did He Call his Art When you First Met Him?

Well, at first he didn't have any name, but once we started going, the school was named Jun Fan Gung Fu. Jun Fan was his Chinese name, so he just used that. As far as concept, he was endowed with the knowledge of a lot of systems. The main source he did was based on Wing Chun. He learned that in Hong Kong; Yip Man was his instructor there.

What Sort of Schedule did Bruce Keep While He was Going to School?

When we actually got the routine going, I mean with the school and such, it was mostly in the evenings that we worked out. We worked out from about, oh, I'd say 7:00 until 9:00 pm. It was generally like Monday, Wednesday and Friday. But, prior to that, before the commercial school. We were basically working out on weekends; you know, like Sundays.

Did He have any Goals at that Time?

That's one thing I learned about him. He always had something, some goal you might call it, that he was trying to reach. Basically, I don't think it really changed that much. At first, of course, he was thinking in terms of maybe starting a string of schools around the country. And then of course when he saw that there was such a greed for money his views changed. Also, he found that everybody was trying to steal somebody else's secrets. He got demoralized, anyway, and at that point he gave it up. About that time television (Green Hornet) kind of gave him a break and that just made it a good point for him to change direction.

What was the Martial Arts Community in Seattle like Before Bruce?

I think it was just kind of getting off the ground. There weren't too many places up here. As far as what was going on down in Chinatown, you know, The Gung Fu concept. I don't think anybody really heard of it. Karate they had heard of; and there was two or three guys in town that were teaching. One guy was teaching at the YMCA. And the other guy was teaching down at the Americn Health Studio down at First and Pike.

Those are the only ones I knew about. There may have been some other guys, but that was about the time that Karate was just sort of coming into focus in the whole country, basically on the West Coast. Due to Ed Parker with his International Karate Championships.