Leo Fong(1928-2022)

Fong was born in the Xinhui district of the city of Jiangmen, located in the province of Canton, China in 1928. At the age of five, he arrived in Seattle, Washington with his parents and siblings, where they were detained for a time, as was common with immigrants from Asia. Upon being released in Seattle, the family traveled overland to Chicago, where Leo's maternal uncle owned a restaurant, and where his father had been guaranteed work. After enough time working at the restaurant, Leo's father Richard had saved enough money to purchase a small grocery store in the tiny agricultural community of Widener, Arkansas. After suffering racial taunts at school, going home telling his father and finding out what they actually meant and then later suffering further racial taunts, he got into a fight at school and he was unfairly punished by a teacher. At age 12 he bought a book called The Fundamentals of Boxing by Barney Ross. He studied the book from cover to cover and learned how to defend himself from bullies. He took up boxing at age 15. Having a knock out punch, his amateur record was 18-7. As well as having a great amount of experience from the American amateur boxing program, Fong had very good experience in weight training. He was friend and student of professional bodybuilder Bill Pearl, and had trained under him for a few years.

His entry into eastern martial arts began in the 1950s with judo and Jiu Jitsu. Through the years he studied and practiced various martial arts styles to the point where he developed his own style called Wei Kune Do.

He was a friend of famed martial artist Bruce Lee and managed to have a sparring session with him. Fong appeared on the cover of the 10th anniversary edition of Black Belt magazine. Bruce Lee arranged it. At first Fong was reluctant to appear on the cover, but Lee insisted. Fong asked him why and Lee said that it would be cool to have a minister and martial arts expert on the cover.