Charles Beeder

Charles Beeder Sr. was an early Kenpo student of Ed Parker, and was the first person promoted to brown belt by Ed Parker (probably in June 1956, possibly at the same time as Mills Crenshaw). Some believe that he was not only Mr. Parker's earliest student who stayed with Kenpo, studying under him as early as 1955 at Brigham Young University, but also his first black belt. However, Mr. Beeder's son Charles Beeder Jr., who himself received a Kenpo black belt in 1980, has been quoted as saying that when Mr. Parker left Utah for California, all of his students were brown belts (at the time only white, brown, and black belts were used in the system), and that his father did not receive his black belt until 1963, leaving James Ibrao as Ed Parker's first black belt.

Charles Beeder was an instructor under Ed Parker at his school in California and worked in law enforcement as a fish and game warden in Provo, UT. His sons Charles Jr. and Frank Beeder are both Kenpo black belts through Stephen M. Snelson.

External links

* [http://www.kenpokarate.com/first_shodan.html Ed Parker's First Shodan]
* [http://www.sanjosekenpo.com/photopage.htm Photos from Charles Beeder's collection.]