Professor Ted Sumner
Executive Member

Professor Ted Sumner began his martial arts training with the Tracy Brothers in San Jose, California in November of 1963. He received extensive training as an instructor and began teaching for the Tracy’s in San Jose in October of 1967. He was awarded his Black Belt on October 11, 1968, one week before his 18th birthday.

Professor Sumner served as a Deputy Sheriff for Santa Clara County assigned to the Main Jail and later as a member of the San Jose Police Department working in Patrol, as an Undercover Narcotics Officer and on the elite SWAT Team. His Kenpo skills were well tested during years in Law Enforcement.

Professor Sumner is the author of the book “Deep Cover Cop” a true life account of his years as an Undercover Narcotics Officer. He also developed and wrote Secrets of the Kenpo Healing Arts, a distance guided instructional course in the healing arts of Kenpo. In 1988 Professor Sumner opened San Jose Kenpo where he taught as Chief Instructor until 2013 when he retired to Austin, Texas turning the school over to his top student Vance Murakami.

 

Grandmaster Jefferson Davis
Executive Member

 

Grandmaster Jefferson Davis has been a part of the Tracy family since he joined the Kirkwood school in St. Louis in 1974. Before that he took three years of Judo in College, and took karate from Master Bob Yarnall in the summer of 1966.

In 1983 he became a student of GGM Al Tracy. While working on his Master’s Degree in History at Southwest Missouri State University from 1975 to 1977 GM Davis had the fortune to train and work under Doctor Roger Greene and his sensei Grandmaster Joe Lewis.

Grandmaster Davis was an avid competitor in tournaments from 1974 until he retired in 2000, winning many state, regional, and national honors in both forms and fighting. His philosophy regarding students is simple: When they come to him to learn, they are putting their lives in his hands.

Grandmaster Davis still teaches and practices Kenpo with his top black belt Billy Dalton at his Troy, Illinois School; Grandmaster Davis retired from the US Army Reserves as a Lieutenant Colonel in Military Intelligence and Special Operations.

 

 

 

 

Grandmaster Bart Vale
Executive Member

World champion shootfighter Bart Vale is one of the pioneers of mixed martial arts in the United States. Vale began his training in kenpo karate in Miami in 1970 with the Al Tracy organization. He currently holds a 10th degree black belt in Chinese Kenpo. He has competed in Shootfighting, kickboxing and no-holds-barred matches in Japan, the United States and Russia for the UWF, Fujiwara Gumi, Rings, K-1 and Extreme Fighting and also promoted the first professional shootfighting matches held outside of Japan.

One of the only martial artists ever featured in Sports Illustrated, Vale has also been the subject of magazine articles in Men’s Fitness and Muscle & Fitness as well as appearing on MTV and CNN. The author of the book, Shootfighting: The Ultimate Martial Art, he has appeared in several movies including Invasion USA. His Miami-based organization, the ISFA, has over 20 affiliated gyms and martial arts schools around the world to help promote the sport of Shootfighting.

 

Mark Miller – Executive Council