Haeng Ung Lee

Haeng Ung Lee was born on 20 July 1936 in Manchuria and moved to Korea after the Second World War. He began martial arts training in 1953 and earned a first-degree black belt in 1954.^[1][2][3]

Career in Korea #

Lee entered the Republic of Korea Army in 1956 and served three years as a martial arts instructor for special troops.^[1][2] In 1959 he opened a private school in Osan, including a branch at the nearby U.S. air base, where he met Richard Reed.^[1]

The United States and the ATA #

Reed sponsored Lee's move to the United States in 1962, and they opened a school in Omaha, Nebraska.^[1] Lee founded the American Taekwondo Association in 1969 and became a U.S. citizen in 1973; the ATA Martial Arts moved to Little Rock, Arkansas, in 1977.^[1][2] In 1983 he introduced Songahm Taekwondo, and in 1990 the ATA's Master's Council awarded him 9th dan and the title Grand Master.^[1][2] He died of lung cancer on 5 October 2000 and was later promoted posthumously to 10th dan, "Eternal Grand Master".^[1][2][3]

Lineage #

The Encyclopedia of Arkansas, Wikipedia and the ATA's own biography name no teacher or kwan for Lee. Two other web pages do connect him to the Chung Do Kwan, one of the original kwans described in History of Taekwondo: a Kido Kwan page says the ATA originally taught the Chung Do Kwan style of Tang Soo Do before it adopted the Chang-hun forms, and a Taekwondo Training history page says Lee was a student of the Chung Do Kwan and co-founded the ATA in 1969 with Suh-Chong Kang, whom it calls a high-ranking Chung Do Kwan graduate.^[5][6] Neither page names a teacher or gives a source, and the Kido Kwan page also appears to date the ATA's direction under Kang to 1966, which does not match the 1969 founding given elsewhere. The ATA's own history page confirms his training from 1953, his black belt in 1954, his move to the United States in 1962 and the 1983 Songahm forms, and names no kwan.^[7] One ATA-affiliated school's history page claims that Choi Hong-hi taught him the first Chang-hun forms in 1968; no independent source confirms it. The Kukkiwon and Korean sources do not mention his rank, and his 9th dan came from the ATA's own council. Lee described Songahm as a response to flaws in the Japanese-influenced Taekwondo commonly taught in the United States.^[1]

Honors reported by the ATA #

The ATA reports a 1987 training camp at Haein Temple, a 1991 monument at the Choong Moo Memorial Center, a 1996 Highest Profile Award and a 1997 KBS Cultural Promotion Award in Korea.^[4] These have not been independently confirmed.