I was born in Cozad, Nebraska on March 20th, 1951. I am the youngest of three brothers. Cozad is a small farming town of about 3000 people in the middle of Nebraska on I-80. I graduated from Cozad H.S. in 1969. I was active in sports beginning in elementary school track. In Jr. High, I participated in football, basketball and track. In H.S. I still participated in three sports but I replaced basketball with wrestling in 9th grade. I lettered twice as a freshman in wrestling and track, and set a freshman football record of scoring six touchdowns in one game. I lettered twice again as a sophomore in wrestling and track. As a junior, I lettered in all three sports and my football team was conference champions. In wrestling, I won the Kearny State Invitational in my weight class. In track, I was captain of the team and I went to State in the 100 and 200 yard dash events, and also in the 440 yard relay. I tied the school record in the 100 yard dash with a time of 10.0 flat. I did not go out for sports in my senior year and instead worked after school at a grocery store. Academically, I maintained all A'2 and B's taking among other courses Calculus and Physics my senior year with a plan to major in mathematics in college. I was first chair percussion on the snare drum in band and also played for a local rock band doing dances. I was president of my senior class and voted King of the Jr./Sr. prom.

In the fall of 1969, I began college at the University of Northern Colorado in Greeley . As a sophomore and at the badgering of my roommate, I agreed to go and watch his Taekwon-Do class. It was love at first sight! I joined the UNC TKD Club and worked out for 3 months with Mr. Mike Joy, I Dan. Mr. Joy then quit TKD and I was advised to go to Denver and work out with (the then Mister) C.E. Sereff if I wished to continue, which I did. At that time, Mr. Sereff was a IV Dan and International Instructor. The organization was called United TKD and was under the ITF. I traveled 3 times a week to work out with Mr. Sereff. After 5 months of training total, I was promoted to 6th gup green belt, so I never wore a gold belt! In those days, technique took a back seat to sparring and your tournament record carried considerable weight. As a white belt, I took 3rd place in sparring. After that I took 1st place in every tournament at every color belt rank that I entered up to black belt. Mr. Sereff also skipped me in rank from 4th gup blue to 2nd gup red. I earned my black belt in 1 year and 10 months (A-1-113). When he promoted me to 6th gup green belt, Mr. Sereff directed me to restart UNC TKD after it had folded due to Mr. Joy's retirement. He sent Mr. Dick Page, I Dan, as the new instructor., Mr. Page traveled from Denver twice a week to teach in Greeley . I therefore worked out 5 times a week, 3 times in Denver under Mr. Sereff and 2 times a week in Greeley under Mr. Page. I was captain of the UNC TKD Club in all collegiate competition. Our team took first place several times during these years. There were many occasions back in those days when black belts from other styles would walk into our club and ask to fight the instructor. We never refused such a request and we never lost either. One time I remember well, a local Kenpo karate instructor, named Stan Batanga, VI degree, walked into the club with his entire school and wanted to spar. Mr. Page was absent that night and had asked me to teach. I was a 6th gup green belt with about 6 months of training. I honored Mr. Batanga request and fought all of his students beating them easily. Embarrassed, he wanted to fight me. We did. I won. My education as an instructor therefore began early. These episodes continued throughout my college career.

I graduated in 1973 and began my commercial TKD gym in Greeley.I then began teaching TKD full time. Besides my gym, I taught for Mr. Sereff at five different locations plus his gym, headquarters. After a year and a half of this, I decided that I needed to use my education for a better paying job, so I began teaching mathematics at Heath Jr, High in Greeley . I have now been there for the past 21 years. In 1979 I received my masters degree in mathematics education.

During this period, Mr. Sereff went to 5th degree. He brought over a Korean sponsored by General Choi. The new instructor was Mr. Ra Yung Chul, V Dan. Mister Sereff asked me to train with Mr. Ra and learn as much as I could. I did this for two years until Mr. Ra moved to Wyoming . During this time, I went to 2nd degree (A-2-15). I was voted Black Belt of the Year by the United TKD black belts. During this time, Mr. Scott Sereff and I became good friends putting on many demos for Mr. Sereff. As a first degree, before Mr. Ra left, I along with other black belts, made the US National team and went to the first ITF World Championships in 1974 in Montreal , Canada . Mr. Sereff was the USA 's coach. There were 29 countries at the championships. Out team USA took first place in the world. I came home with two silver and one gold medals.

Eventually I was promoted to 3rd degree (A-3-57). Around this time, at General Choi's direction, Mister Sereff was asked to spread TKD throughout the entire US. Up to this point, Sereff TKD had been mainly a Colorado/Wyoming venture. This was the beginning of the United States Taekwon-Do Federation (USTF). I was promoted to 4th degree (A-4-44) some time later and in the reorganization I was appointed quadrant director of Colorado . Mr. Sereff was also promoted to 6th degree. Mr. Sereff appointed me Director of Technique for the newly formed USTF and also made me Director of Black Belts/Instructors for Sereff TKD. Eventually he promoted me to a higher position as State Director for Colorado . As the new USTF began to grow rapidly, Mr. Sereff saw the need for supervisors of the State Directors and so he created the Region Directors. At first he divided the US into 4 regions and I was promoted to Region 2 Director. Later, as the USTF grew even more and with it the workload on the regional directors, he divided the country into 10 regions. I remained the Region 2 Director for 10 years. After retiring this position, Mr. Sereff appointed me as Senior Vice President of the USTF. Very shortly afterwards, Mr. Sereff decided to eliminate all the senior vice presidents and to amalgamate them into one position, USTF Vice President. He appointed me to that position which I still serve in today.

Around this time, Mr. Sereff was promoted to VII Dan, Master Sereff. I was promoted to V Dan (A-5-25). Before my V Dan promotion, as a 4th Dan, I competed in the 4th ITF World Championships in Glasgow , Scotland . Again, 29 countries competed and my team, the USA team, took 2nd place. Again, personally, I cam home with two silvers and one gold medal. That same year, in 1984, I competed in the USTF Nationals to make the team and there I took overall Grand Champion. I retired from TKD competition after these 2 events.

However, one more honor was bestowed upon me. It was to be my most treasured prize of my TKD career. Master Sereff presented me with his own belt when he promoted me to IV Dan. Previously only two other persons had received belts from Master Sereff: Mr. Chuck Eberhard had received his I Dan belt and Mr. Scott Sereff received his III Dan belt. My next promotion was to VI Dan (A-6-16). I was humbly honored and very surprised again to receive Master Sereff's personal VI Dan belt along with Master Lang. Of all the trophies, awards, positions, titles etc that I have received in TKD, nothing can compare to the joy and the pride of receiving two of Master Sereff's black belts. This has been the pinnacle of my career in my opinion. To honor him and also to express my strong personal conviction of my TKD philosophy, I renamed my school to ILPYONDANSHIM TKD, which literally translated from General Choi's book means "serve only one master with unshakeable loyalty".

As Director of Technique, I solely wrote the USTF Requirements Books still used today for our testing's. This was my 4th Dan thesis. I based these requirements upon my 25 year research and study of all of General Choi's books, which includes his previous 6 textbooks on TKD and his two sets of encyclopedias with their revised condensed revisions.

I have been very fortunate in TKD in many ways. I have earned a black belt and then some. I have won many trophies in competition from local and national and twice at world level competition. I have earned the trust of my instructor. I have been blessed by God with a share of athletic talent and a drive and desire to learn and perfect technique. There are a few goals left for me to satisfy my drive in TKD. I have only three. Since Master Sereff is an VIII Dan, I realise that the highest I can go in rank is VII Dan. This suits me just fine. My cup already runneth over. However, it would be nice to attain the rank of master some day if that is in Master Sereff's plan. Secondly, I have beloved students in Greeley that I would like to see go further in TKD. And lastly, a lifetime goal is to continue to serve Master Sereff and General Choi with unshakeable loyalty.

Note: Mr. Mike Winegar tested to VII Dan on 6/15/96 thus becoming Master Winegar and the second Master promoted by Master Sereff (Now Grand Master Sereff).