Duane Ethington

FATHER, HUSBAND, SON, BROTHER, UNCLE AND VALUED FRIEND

EMAIL: duaeth@tx.rr.com

Personal

Born in Bloomington, Illinois. I moved to Texas at age nine where I grew up. Attended Forest Avenue High School in Dallas and then served three years in the Army Security Agencey where I held a Top Secret/Cryptographic Clearance. While in the Army I acted and performed productions for the Fayetteville Theatrical Arts Guild. I also wrote for the Battalion Newspaper.

I attended Eastfield Junior College in Mesquite, Texas where I had straight A's, was a member of PHI THETA KAPPA for three semesters and on the Dean's Honor Roll. I finished my schooling at the University of Texas at Arlington. A Psychology Major with a History/Jounalism Minor, I was forced to drop school while still lakcing 11 hours for graduation.

Family

Father - Roscoe (deceased), Mother - Eleanor (92), Brothers - Forrest (Hap), David Lyle, Oakley Byron (deceased) and Kyle Joda. Sisters - Vivian, Qwalene (Nub), Deena Kim and Tanee Rae.

Married twice. Jane Rutherford 1st - We had three great kids - Sean Duane, Melissa Gail and Eric Jason. Sean is married to Janis and they have two boys; Alexander and Bradley. Melissa is married to Frank Passerino and they have Mia Gabrielle. Eric is married to Hope Elizabeth and they have Jason Eric, Brandon and Brianne. Married a 2nd time to Linda in 1994 and they have no children of their own. He has four step children - Rick, Shane, Ge'lin (Liah) and Jack. Rick and Charlotte are divorced and have Austin and Mason. Shane is married to Patricia and they have Salvador, Priscilla and Joshua. Ge'lin is divorced and has Haley Mariah and Jack is married to Cathy with a daughter Cera.

Business, Work and Play

I have been everything from an Airline Crew Scheduler to a Driver's Payroll Clerk at a big trucking company to a Computer Programmer to a Security Officer. The majority of my time has been spent in Security with Pinkerton (when it was California Plant Protection) where I was a Captain and Night Supervisor.

First and foremost, I have been involved in studying and teaching Tae Kwon Do and Jujistu as well as writing for nearly forty years. I have owned and operated schools in Las Vegas, Florida, California and Texas.

My martial arts have taken me to many parts of the world. God has been good to me and has let me have a glorious and wonderful career in this field. I fought for 17 years on the national circuit where I amassed scores of trophies and plaques. More importantly, I met and became friends with some of the greatest martial artists on the planet. I could not possibly mention them all. Some of them, however, to give you an idea are: Bruce Lee, Ed Parker, Mike Stone, Patrick Strong, Mark Wendell, Eric Lee, Steve Fisher, Evan Kim, Tadashi Yamashita, Fumio Demura, Bob Rosenbaum, Ernie Reyes Sr and Jr, The Flores Brothers of Oxnard and Philip and Simon Rhee as well as Howard Jackson, Chuck Norris, Bong Soo Han, Ted Tabura, Chicken Gabriel, Bill Wallace, Joe Corley, Keith Vitali and scores of others.

Then there are my Texas connections, which include virtually everyone of note. Skipper Mullins, Allen Steen, J. Pat Burleson, Keith Yates, Roy Kurban, James Toney, Gary Lee, Richard Jenkins, Fred Wren, Demetrius Havanas, Ray McCallum, Chuck Loven, Ed Daniel, Mickey Fisher, Bob Woerner, Bob Beasley, Troy Dorsey, Tim Kirby, Mike Proctor, Forrest Littlejohn, Kelly Cox, Joy Turberville, Linda Denley, Janice and Jim Miller, Royce Young, Jeff Kowalski and so many, many, many others.

I have been blessed with some terrific students along the way. Out of thousands over my forty years of martial arts, some have been truly outstanding. They include: my son Sean, Mark Wendell, Danny Payne, Paul Rosencrans, Erik Boranian Jeff Jackson, David Coleman, Greg and Kristin Pearson, Andy Teves and Mike Barajas, along with current and past Jujitsu students, Tony and Cindy Neese, Tony Wright, Jeff, Stephanie and Cory Bys, Chris Houtchens, Chad Cooper, Jerry Horn, Robbie Steed, Alton Thibodeaux, Hallah Baramadjan, Scott Rose, Josh Hunt, Brandon and Jared Schweers, Johnny Alrid, Mike Garcia, Milton Garcia, Bobby Blakey, Greg Treece, Elizabeth Garlington and many others.

I have been truly blessed in the martial arts segment of my life. Originally, I joined at age 27 just to "keep in shape". From the beginning, though, I was hooked as martial arts penetrated my very being and became a huge part of my life. Many, many unexpected but greatly treasured moments have highlighted and augmented what has turned into a fairly good career in the field. During my 40 plus years of involvement, I have been selected to a number of all-star teams, was Southern California's 1977 Martial Arts MAN OF THE YEAR, am in "Who's Who in American Karate, 2nd Edition; have gained 9th degree Black Belt Rankings in both Tae Kwon Do and Jujitsu, founded a very good Jujitsu system (Iss-Hogai, an American Jujitsu), was selected to the United States Martial Arts Hall of Fame in 2003, was A-Kato's (American Karate and Tae Kwon Do Organization) INSTRUCTOR OF THE YEAR in 2006 and most recently have been enshrined into the LIVING LEGENDS OF SPORT KARATE in 2006. I currently teach Jujitsu class every Saturday morning at the Rowlett Community Center.

Writing

The SECOND great passion of my life is my WRITING. From high school to the Army to the hundreds of articles and stories in the nations martial arts magazines to the screen plays and THREE published Novels, I have proven that I love to write. I also have taught numerous Creative Writing classes and love teaching others how to write novels and screenplays.

Aside from the martial arts and writing some of the things I enjoy most have been or currently are good Bible studies, chess, golf, playing football, baseball and Tiger Woods Golf on my PS2, singing, watching and collecting movies (I have over 1,600 movies in my library) checkers, pinochle, backgammon and Texas Hold 'Em Poker.

My published novels have been BLACK HAWK, about the Sauk War Chief of the same name, who is my great, great, great, great grandfather; LIMPY, a western story I wrote from a song my dad use to sing to us and BAYARD - THE GOOD KNIGHT, about a 15th Century French Knight who is possibly the most renowned soldier in all of Europe. I also have several stories and screen plays in various stages of development. My next big desire is to acquire a literary agent or manager. I love to write but do not have the time, money nor expertise to push my books the way they should be marketed.

Thanks for stopping by my web site and I trust you will come back often as several things will continue to change. The writing tips and lessons, martial arts tips and techniques and the Bible studies in the Spirituality section will change often.