| On
September 26, 1997 the martial arts world lost one of the finest men they
ever knew. Terry Gibson,
who had been battling a brain tumor for 12 years, passed away at 2:50
p.m. that day.
Terry
was an inspiration to us, as a martial artist and a person.
Martial arts were his passion and in 1986 he did what few people
have the guts to do. He gave
up his law practice of 7 years; with it’s monetary advantages and prestige,
to follow his dreams and opened his first, full time martial arts academy.
As many of Terry’s friends knew, Terry suffered from seizures.
Although these bouts left him tired, weak and sometimes disoriented,
he would pick himself up and continue as best he could.
I cannot count the times he would be teaching class and would have
to leave the floor to have a seizure, sometimes 2 or 3 a night, just to
return to his class 5 or 10 minutes later to finish it up.
Terry
told one of his students once that because of the effects from the cancer
he would never be able to be the best fighter but he wanted to be the
best instructor that he could be.
I believe that anyone who was lucky enough to train under Terry
realized the amount of effort he put into perfecting his teaching skills.
But even more than teaching, Terry loved to train.
He had a thirst for knowledge that few of us can understand, it
was all consuming. For that
reason, Terry took several trips a year to Los Angeles, CA. to train with
his instructors, Guro Dan Inosanto, Ajarn Chai Sirisute and Pak Herman
Suwanda. When his instructors
were giving seminars within driving distance from his home in Tulsa, Terry
would make the trip to see them and even traveled to Indonesia to participate
in training camp with Pak Herman.
Terry kept up his training through seizures and 2 years of chemotherapy,
he was totally dedicated and it showed in his many accomplishments and
certifications. He was a
Full Instructor in the Filipino Martial Arts and Jun Fun Gung Fu under
Guro Dan Inosanto. He had
his beginning certificate under Ajarn Chai Sirisute and was the director
for the South Central Region in the Thai Boxing Association of the USA.
He had recently acquired his teaching certificate under Pak Herman
Suwanda in Mande Muda Pencak Silat.
Those
of us who were lucky enough to call Terry our friend know what an exceptional
person he was. Always open,
willing to make new friends and the first person to give you a big hug.
Terry will be greatly missed in a world where he stood for the things
he believed in, the things we all want to believe in.
Loyalty, honesty, friendship, hard work, being true to yourself,
kindness, generosity and love.
Terry is survived by his wife Kathy, his parents
Harold and Ruth Gibson, 1 brother, 3 sisters and many aunts, uncles, nephews,
and friends. He will be sadly
missed by all.
“If
people bring so much courage to this world the world has to kill them
to break them, so of course it kills them...It kills the very good and
the very gentle and the very brave impartially.
If you are none of these you can be sure that it will kill you
too but there will be no special hurry.”
—Ernest
Hemingway
A Farewell to Arms
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