By today's standards Willie came from a "dysfunctional family". One of 16
children he simply got lost in the midst of the herd. It is very obvious that
the family, while large, was not very close. Beside William Chow there were three other brothers who also taught the martial arts.His brother Frank was Ed Parker's first instructor. Chow finally found his niche in life when he enrolled in one of Mitose's Kenpo Jui Jitsu classes.

William Chow was a great warrior, he was only 26 when he started studying with James Mitose.He had an uncanny gift for remembering every self defense technique he had been taught. But that was not enough, he took each new self defense technique and spent hours working it with different partners practicing and perfecting and refining each technique. William Chow then used the streets of Honolulu, with its endless supply of U.S. military personnel for his final testing ground. Despite his many fights William Chow had few problems with the police. In those days if a GI got into a fight, and lost, he took his licking, kept his mouth shut and was ready for a few more beers and another fight next "payday"! For a period of time Chow actually lived with and worked for James Mitose. William Chow spent most of his time training with Mitose and hanging out at Henry S. Okazaki's Jui-jitsu dojo!

After WWII Mitose changed the nature of hiss instruction from Destructive, power of the War Arts, to a more refined form of martial art. Thunderbolt Chow continued teaching the Hard Style of Kenpo and it was this style that as passed on to Parker and Cerio.

While he was not very tall (5'2") he was extremely powerful. His was proven by
his great "breaking ability" and his hours of practice on the Makawara. Many
masters who knew the professor claimed his "powerful stance" was the root of
his power.

As the full history of Kenpo is told, you will see why William Chow was
important in preserving and passing on the "WAR ART" aspect of Kenpo. Kenpo was not the offspring of a single man. It is a complex fighting system that was developed for over 800 years and finally brought to Hawaii in 1937 by the 21st Great Grand Master James Mitose.

During his life time Professor Chow received very little credit or
recognition for his important role in all the systems based upon
Kenpo/Kempo. Outside the Kenpo community he was relatively unknown. None of the major magazines ever gave him any coverage. And his death went relative unreported by any of the magazines except for a mandatory few words. He tolled all his life teaching the arts he loved, but he never made a living at it. He lived most of in poverty. He never had more than a handful of students. He never had a "dojo" of his own. He taught out of YMCA's, boys clubs and recreation halls. A few private students he taught in the park.

It can truly be said Professor Chow "taught from the heart"! His warrior
spirit never left him! To the Professor Kenpo was a war art. It was pure
Martial Arts! The Professor would never compromise! The Professor understood there is no sport in a street fight. He had been in too many! There are no rules, no referees, no time out)! The rules of self defense
techniques: simple, direct, fast, powerful, effective.

The Director would like to thank the Tracy Kenpo organisation for their priceless research into th life of Thunderbolt Chow.

Read also "Ed Parkers Infinite Insights" to get his side of the story.