I was so pleased and began training everyday. I tested for my black belt in 1976. My instructors were glad to see me competing in tournaments again. Our school hosted the 1977 A.A.U. Illinois State Championships. Master Choi spoke to the three of us who usually won our sparring divisions, and explained about the competition for this new Grand Champion trophy. It was a very prestigious and expensive award, and he told my classmates to make sure that one of them received that new award. Master Choi told me that all I needed to do was to try.

  I was more determined than ever to win my first Grand Champion trophy. That thirty year old trophy is still on display at my Taylorville dojang. We continued to travel to many tournaments, and our hard work was paying off with a lot more wins. Then history repeated itself: the Choi Brothers sold the dojang to Master Young Chul Rho.

     I tried to train with Master Rho, but his way of doing things was not for me. I started working as a disc jockey for a local radio station and in night clubs. Without the influence of taekwondo and working around the party scene, it did not take me long to get caught up in the fast lifestyle again. I was living like there was no tomorrow, spending every dollar that I made. My job with the railroad also ended around the same time. They closed our shop and sent the work away to be done. Over the next few months, I had to let go of my nice apartment and car. I felt like I was heading nowhere. This time I was afraid that I would end up like a lot of my friends from Rockford, either dead from drug overdose or killed when a drug deal went bad. Of my friends who were still alive, most of them were in prison.

     Within the next year I heard that Master Rho had left town and some American black belts had opened two different taekwondo schools in Decatur. The instructors were also friends of mine that I had recruited as new students. I did not consider training with them until I happened to see a demonstration. I got excited again and enrolled. I noticed a few changes to poomsae, and taegeuk forms were used instead of palgwe forms. USTU was now the top organization for taekwondo in the United States. Its sole focus was for the promotion of taekwondo. The AAU was designed to benefit dozens of sports.

     Once I got back into shape, I became more involved with the school. I helped teach classes and got back into competing. I continued to win at open tournaments. I went to my first USTU Illinois State Championships. This was when I first met Grandmaster Duk Gun Kwon from the suburbs of Chicago. He hosted a sparring seminar the night before the game. Introductions were made between Grandmaster   Kwon and myself. I knew then that I was in the presence of someone special. As I bowed to him, he extended his hand to me. I knew how special that gesture was. I had never met anyone with that high rank before.

    During the opening ceremony of the championships, the announcer introduced Grandmaster Kwon and listed his credentials. He was the vice president of the United States USTU and President of the Illinois State USTU. His accomplishments are too many to list. The promotion of taekwondo is important to him. The crowd went wild when he spoke.

     I won gold in forms and silver in sparring and returned to Decatur with more   focus. Working in night clubs, I knew that I did not want that lifestyle anymore. The American instructor would occasionally give me a chance to earn extra money if I taught for him. I helped remodel a building in a little town about thirty miles south of Decatur. He was planning to open a new dojang for a young black belt from that area.

     In the meantime, my personal life was falling apart. I wore my welcome out with friends and relatives. I even spent one night in the school van. I wanted taekwondo   in my life but I did not know how. It never dawned on me that I could make a living by teaching taekwondo. I would continue to look for a job, and keep taekwondo as my hobby. I called my older brother in Rockford, he said that I could stay with him until I got back on my feet. I packed my bag and returned to my hometown. I let my relatives in Decatur know how to reach me in Rockford.

     I was back in Rockford for a few months when I received a call from one of the American Instructors in Decatur. He asked me if I wanted to take over the school   in Taylorville, Illinois. It was the same dojang that I had helped to remodel the year before.

     I asked how many students were left, and he replied that there were only six left. I wanted to know more about the black population in Taylorville. He had no   idea, and it didn’t really matter to me. I felt that this opportunity was so unexpected that perhaps this was the opportunity that I needed. I think he was as surprised as I was when I said yes.

     I put all of my belongings into one suitcase and headed to Taylorville. The building was located between the City Police Station and a small restaurant called Bill’s Toasty. I went to the restaurant to introduce myself to the landlord. He owned both buildings. There was an instant rapport with him. He proved to be a very kind and honest man. I asked him if it would be alright if I also lived in the school. He agreed.

     Only six students lived in my dojang; we had no hot water, no transportation (Taylorville was too small for public transportation.), and no bed to sleep on; but I truly believed that I was where I was supposed to be, doing what I supposed to do.

     At first, I offered only one class, six nights each week. A day class was added to the schedule. Then as membership grew I separated the kid’s class from the adult’s class. The students were still not willing to pay me more than a month at a time. A number of Taylorville residents had been burned by con artists who claimed to be opening martial art schools. They convinced some to pay their tuition in advance and were told to pick their uniforms up at the first class. Another ‘Instructor’ at least gave out uniforms. None of them had ever intended to open a business at all. I had to prove my commitment to taekwondo and to this area. I think that more people would have been willing to pay me to leave town.

     Little by little my situation improved. Sometime during that first year, the landlord acknowledged my determination (and growling stomach). He said that he had made arrangements for me to eat a meal every day at his restaurant - no cost. Another unexpected blessing came from a family who brought my Christmas present early - a new sofa bed. My office now had comfortable seating for business transactions and  I no longer had to sleep on the floor. Once again, my landlord reached out. He told me that one of the apartments (above the dojang) had recently become available and he wanted me to take it. I thanked him for the gesture but I still could not afford something like that. He had already worked that out - just add $150 a month to the rent for the business.

     The generosity of these people who were practically strangers to me was hard for me to accept. My heart was hardened and suspicious. But I see now that it was all part of a bigger plan to mold me into a better (more open) person.
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    Thomas Eugene Perry
   Date of Birth: Jun 24, 1953
   Country: USA
   Kukkiwon Seventh Degree Black Belt

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