Vice President

Sensei Don Pickett
8th Dan
BORN: July 17, 1937
DIED: March 5, 2010

In 1957 Don was working for Bell Telephone in Miami, Florida (Dade County). Mr. Allen Campbell was a supervisor and ex officer in the Navy Seals. He started a class for those interested in the martial arts. The class consisted of training the Navy seals used at that time. It was a combination of Judo and Karate. Mr. Campbell did this free of charge as a favor to us.

In 1959 Allen informed us of a karate dojo that had opened in Miami operated by Sensei Karl Kish. To my knowledge this was the first dojo to open in South Florida. Sensei Kish had studied Japanese Karate Federation karate at the University of Tokyo for four years. I was fortunate enough to have him as my sensei for two years. I was transferred to Key West in 1961 and was not able to work with Sensei Kish after that time.

My next experience in karate was not until I was transferred back to Knoxville about 1967. When returning to Knoxville, I visited Harold Long’s School which I had read about in the local paper. I enrolled immediately after visiting the dojo.

While at Mr. Long’s dojo I worked with and was trained by Mr. Allen Wheeler, Cas Cox, and Glenn Webb to mention only a few. In June of 1969 I was awarded my Sho-Dan by Harold Long. I was awarded my Ni-Dan from Mr. Long in June of 1971. This was also signed by Tatsuo Shimabuku whom I was able to meet when he visited Mr. Long’s dojo. I studied at Mr. Long’s dojo until I reached the rank of Go-Dan which was bestowed to me on February 7, 1981.

Sometime in the 1980’s Harold Long sold his school to Pete Shelton. Shortly after that, I left the school and asked Allen Wheeler if he would accept me as a student at his dojo. At this dojo I was fortunate enough, thanks to Mr. Wheeler, to have worked with Clayton Thurston, Sensei Sherman Harrill, Louie Grinnell, George Dillman, Rick Moneymaker, Rich Mooney and many others. Through the years I have had the opportunity and pleasure to work and train with many excellent students of karate. Due to Mr. Wheeler’s generosity in allowing us to study many different methods of martial arts, I have studied pressure point fighting, weapons, tai chi, reike, and empty force training along with traditional Isshinryu karate.

While studying under Master Wheeler I have achieved the ranks of Ro-Ku Dan on September 10, 1995 and Na-Na Dan on October 18, 1997. Don was promoted to 8th Dan July 12, 2003

I feel very fortunate to have had the opportunity to have studied and trained with a Sensei such as Master Wheeler who has had such an open mind and a generosity of sharing knowledge. His contribution to the Martial Arts is outstanding by any standard.