GREAT GRANDMASTER LEE WON KUK
(13/04/1907 - 02/02/2003)

Great Grandmaster Lee Won Kuk – the Founder of the first native Korean martial art school “Chung Do Kwan”. The Chung Do Kwan's name means “Blue Wave School”, which symbolize a youngster's spirit and vitality. Under the Korean government's Revised Romanization System (officially adopted in July 2007) the school’s name would be rendered "Cheong Do Gwan".

In 1926, at the age of 19, Lee Won Kuk moved to Japan where he attended high school and Chuo University law school. He joined Japan's Karate-do headquarters, Song Do Kwan (Shotokan) where he studied with the father of Karate, Gichin Funakoshi, and Ro Byung Jick, the founder of Song Moo Kwan.

Lee returned to Korea in 1944, an in September he began teaching Tang Soo Do in the Yong Shin school hall in Seoul. During the period of Japanese occupation it was virtually impossible for a Korean national to open a school of martial arts in their homeland. Due to Lee's close relationship with Japan's Joseon Governor General Abe, Lee was allowed to open his school of karate. The school was called Chung Do Kwan.

Upon Korean independence in 1945, Lee was acquitted and became very proactive in his stance about Korean independence and formed a tight alliance with the Korean National Police and helped them rid Seoul of gangsters. Lee Won Kuk was a precise person with the strong body of a martial artist and glaringly sharp eyes that made his expression very strict. When the Chung Do Kwan was opened at Gyun Ji Dong, Si Chun Gyo Dang, Jong Ro Gu, Seoul, in April of 1946, it became referred to as the National Police Headquarters dojang. Anyone with a black belt was given "an honorary badge."

The first seventeen black belts of Chung Do Kwan were: Yoo Ung Jun; Son Duk Sung; Uhm Woon Kyu; Hyun Jong Myun; Min Woon Sik; Han In Sook; Jung Young Taek; Kang Suh Chong; Baek Joon Ki; Nam Tae Hi; Ko Jae Chun; Kwak Kuen Sik; Kim Suk Kyu; Han Cha Kyo; Jo Sung Il; Lee Sa Man; and Rhee Jhoon Goo (who later became the father of American Taekwondo).

Over time, from Inchon the center of the Chung Do Kwan's annex kwans, several kwans were developed which had roots in Chung Do Kwan, such as Kuk Mu Kwan, founded by Kang Suh Chong; Jung Do Kwan, founded by Lee Yong Woo; Chung Ryong Kwan, founded by Ko Jae Chun; and Oh Do Kwan, founded by Choi Hong Hi and Nam Tae Hi.

The Chung Do Kwan's first Kwan Jang was Lee Won Kuk, the second was Son Duk Sung, and the third was Uhm Woon Kyu.

In the 1960s, one of Lee's Tang Soo Do students was U.S. Army Gen. William C. Westmoreland, in the period when Westmoreland was commander of U.S. Forces in Vietnam. Westmoreland later helped him immigrate to the United States in 1976.

Lee had lived in Arlington since 1976, and during his years in this area had given martial arts demonstrations at martial arts studios and schools in Northern Virginia, suburban Maryland and Washington and at Howard University.

Lee Won Kuk died of pneumonia on February 2, 2003 at Arlington Hospital at the age of 95. In people's memory Great Grandmaster Lee Won Kuk has remained educated, diplomatic and the strong-willed person who gave to plenty of students his vision of martial arts and the big creative heritage.