Happy Anniversary!
Happy Anniversary, W. Kim!
So, it’s been 39 years since W. Kim Tae Kwon Do was established. 1981 was the year Great Grandmaster Wan Sup Kim came over from South Korea specifically to teach martial arts. In 1982, W. Kim was official. To give you a little bit of perspective, Great Grandmaster had turned 40, Grandmaster Kim was in Junior High and Grandmaster Tae hadn’t even hit 1st grade yet.
Please bear with me as you are bombarded by history.
W. Kim started in Mount Prospect, IL off of Northwest Highway (US 14) and stayed there until 1986 or 1987. (I’m a little fuzzy on this particular detail.) Great Grandmaster was also a fixture at both the Lattof and Buehler YMCAs.
The school moved to Palatine after that. For those of you who are locals or remember the area back then, the school was tucked back in the corner of the strip mall next to K-mart off of Hicks and Northwest Highway. The Palatine police station now occupies that space and the K-mart is now a Marianos.
W. Kim moved again towards the end of 1992 to downtown Palatine (northwest corner of Palatine Rd and Plum Grove Rd.) That building is no longer there. W. Kim stayed in that particular location until 1998. By the time it had moved to this location, Grandmaster Kim had completed college. And consequently this is where Headmaster Netzel and Asst. Master Steffens started their Tae Kwon Do journeys.
In 1998, W. Kim moved east, but not too far. The new location was in Palatine across from Spunky Dunkers next to Rugport until 2003. One of the big highlights from that era was Grandmaster Tae winning Nationals and competing for a spot on the Olympic Tae Kwon Do team. This is also where Master Adam started his Tae Kwon Do journey.
In 2002, W. Kim moved up Route 14 to Quentin Corners (US 14 and Quentin Rd.). The location across from Spunky Dunkers stayed open primarily just for sparring training. Eventually the sparring training moved over to the Quentin Corners location. This is where Master Charlie and many of the current Palatine staff started their journeys.
In 2007, W. Kim opened our second location in Lake Zurich. Grandmaster Tae transferred from the Palatine location to run the Lake Zurich facility and Master Netzel started working full time at Palatine. Not too long after Lake Zurich had been open, Master Charlie started working full time at Lake Zurich.
In 2011, it was time to move again and the Palatine location moved a couple miles south (still in Palatine) to Regency Plaza, where it is today (northeast corner of Quentin and Euclid).
In 2019, Master Adam, who had been a fixture for many years at W. Kim in a part time capacity, started working at the Palatine location full time.
In 2020, in the midst of all the crazy adjustments to everyone’s lives, W. Kim grew again to open a third location in Mount Prospect. Master Netzel transferred from the Palatine location to run this newest location, back where it all started in the early ‘80s. At the same time, Asst. Master Steffens started working at the Palatine location full time.
So, here we are now.
To be honest, there are too many milestones and memories to capture in just one blog post. I was thinking about why 39 years should be so special? Well, like many others, this past year of lockdowns and adjustments to normal living has led to more introspection. I figured, why wait until it’s a nice even number like 40? Who knows what this next year will bring? What I do know for sure is that without W. Kim, there are many, many people out there whose lives would not have been as enriched as they have been. Mine included.
The legacy that Great Grandmaster started has influenced thousands of lives and, I believe, thousands more to come.
