Monroe Days - 1984

As promised, here is the other newspaper I found in our archives (the old file cabinet). Sifu Clark and his school was featured in the Monroe, Michigan newspaper, the Evening News. It was exciting for the school to get this kind of exposure. Sigung Rocco had already been studying there for almost three years and I was there for over a year. Some of my favorite people were pictured.  

In one picture, Sifu Clark is working with a man (back to the camera, but totally recognizable by the bandana he always wore around his head), a dear friend and still a Wing Chun Do brother, Kamal Shamoun. Twelve year old Tammy, although I didn't include her picture here, was the only other female in class. And Sifu Clark's right hand man, my senior,13 year old Korbett Miller. 

 Pretty intense look Korbett.

Kamal that's you, right?

A year later, the Wing Chun Do Instructors Training Program was officially started by Sijo James DeMile with the core of instructors coming from Sifu Clark's Monroe school. It was due to these dedicated Michigan students that Sijo created a teaching program in earnest. After Sijo started the IIT (Instuctor In Training) program, he soon opened his own school in Shoreline. Although Sijo had training camps in the past (and in the future) like the one Sifu Clark had attended, this IIT Program was different. It was a formalized path,with multiple trips going back and forth between Michigan and Seattle attending instructor camps over many years, creating a strong Wing Chun Do bond and history.

More Vintage Monroe School History

Let's keep going with some old school history and the vintage Michigan Wing Chun Do theme. That's what happens when you empty a file cabinet thats been standing untouched for twenty years.  You find little gems. And unwittingly you archive a small piece of history to be discovered years later. Found this newspaper called Discover Wu-Shu dated December 1983. On the cover is a picture of our first instructor in Wing Chun Do, Sifu Jim Clark along with the founder of Wing Chun Do, Sijo James W. DeMile.

Discover Wu Shu Magazine

Too bad about the crease.

Next week I'll post pictures from another newspaper I found, a 1984 Monroe, Michigan newspaper with a full page article on Sifu Clark's school with pictures of some classmates you may remember.

Peace.

Vintage Michigan Wing Chun Do

From the Michigan Wing Chun Do Archives - The iconic yellow and red business card for the Fort Street Wing Chun Do school in Monroe, Michigan. Sifu Jim Clark was an unpredicable and memorable character, managing to make his students wonder, sometimes nervously, what adventure would be waiting for them physically and mentally, every time we entered his school.