Baxierboxer, MIA ?

[baxierstudent]

My emails to and about Pete got nowhere. I am worried. I was shocked on seeing Walter's post. I still don't believe that he has "passed on". Walter can you check again on this? He was not in bad health- to my knowledge. I remember the LA get together with Pete, Kisu, Sifu Agustine Fong and you- very well. Pete and I later went to Fong sifu's motel room and chatted for a while and also very briefly showed and discussed some moves.

He was getting bored with California- I am hoping that he re-settled somewhere else.

The list of the top flight people he learned from would make a who is who list of martial arts greats
including TCMA. His knowledge of MA was/is deep and his skills were/are great. Pete had/has a great analytical eye- could spot the essence of a martial motion very well.

Walter or anyone else- would you please PM me if you hear anything more? With hope-Thanks,

joy chaudhuri

Thanks Joy

Pete often spoke of your knowlege, skill, and seriousness.

[sanjuro_ronin]

I had at first created bakxierstudent as a user name then decided this was not the time for me to be a nerd about someone else's spelling. Possibly a bad choice on my part considering the amount of thought Pete put into his unique take on snake style

I appreciate your thoughtfulness.
Pete used to ream me for the careless spelling mistakes, something about the "devil is in the details".
He was right.

[Northwind]

I REALLY did not enjoy coming upon this thread. I remember Pete only from the various electronic forums throughout the years, and had a great respect for him. It's amazing how someone who don't really "know" can have an effect on you. He will be missed for sure.

[Lokhopkuen]

Hey Walter;
God bless I had the feeling something had changed and one of the good ones had left us.



I appreciate you writing here with some kind words about my friend and respected colleague. Anything you can find out detailing his passing would be greatly appreciated and I'd be interested to organize a memorial for Master Peter Robinson here in Los Angeles because he should never be forgotten.


(Peter far right)

For those whom do not know Master Robinson was a highly skilled & dedicated martial practitioner. We became associated in the early 90's and had many great discussions and debates about martial practice and martial culture. Peter was always humble and reserved about his martial arts knowledge yet always willing to share, enthusiastic to teach.


He was present at at-least two different studio grand opening parties of mine.


(In this photo he is pictured center left between my teacher and si-hing.)


His skill lives on in a few talented guys like Walter.

R.I.P.

Kisu

PS
I'm gonna see if I can dig up a few old photographic gems with Master Robinson.
Peace

Hi Everyone,

I've been informed that Master Peter Robinson passed on sometime last year. I'm still trying to locate surviving family to confirm this. Pete was something of a hermit but it's unlikely in the extreme that he simply slipped off to parts unknown without telling me. From 1990 to 2005 I was his closed door student on a weekly basis. When we last spoke, he mentioned that Master Chung had just died, so that was probably October. Pete was quite funny on the phone and joked about 'getting older fast', though he said nothing about illness. He would not have wanted a lot of fuss in any case.

I half expected him to outlive me and I don't have the customary multi-generational photographs or wall paper. Possibly Joy and Kisu will remember that the four of us had dinner a few years back. And I think Kisu has some video from a demo(wherein I was overconfident and not very good).

Pete once said that he'd earned his grumbling irreverence by way of great reverence for a very few people and things. He held each of his teachers to be in a class by himself in one way or another, though I think he had a special admiration for Gin Foon Mark.

Pete wasn't always so reclusive. His stories about the sometimes amazing and sometimes hilarious things his teachers and many students did or said, would fill a book. I'll relate one that I witnessed myself. In the eighties Pete decided to study snakes. He soon learned that they sleep most of the time so he got about thirty of them. Bill Chung would occasionally visit LA on his way to Asia. And one time Pete decided to show some of what he'd been up to with the snakes. His 14 foot rock python named 'cuddles' happened to be getting hungry and active. Pete opened up her cage and she cruised around the room. She was fairly used to people and probably not trying to decide if I or my training partner were too big to eat ...probably. But she stopped short in front of Chung. He bent his head down and gave her a look. In about half a second she did a 180 and high-tailed it back to the cage as fast as she could. We'd never seen her do anything like that *and said "Sifu! Sifu! How did Master Chung scare the snake?" Pete just shrugged and said "Chung is Chung".

In 2008, out of the blue, Pete asked me 'has anyone figured out you're a master yet?' We'd never discussed this before and all I could think to say was that, if and when I have students up to instructor level I'll consider using the M-word. That possibility is slim enough and in the nearly thirty years I knew him, Pete only memtioned one other of his students in those terms. In the Connecticut days he taught a young Chinese guy named Walker, privately and for free because he was that good. Years later Pete sometimes remarked that if Walker has been keeping at it, he may well be a master by now. I wish I could be certain of Walker's last name Ng? Chang? sorry. For a while Pete shared a house with guy known to the other students a 'little Pete' (though he was in fact bigger). Little Pete considered himself a disciple and had followed Big Pete to California from the east coast. I believe he was pretty advanced but there was some kind of falling out. In those years Pete was telling anyone who would listen to 'go train with Doc Wong (Wong Ark Yuey) while he's still with us'. Little Pete had done so. When I Went over to the house in 1987 Little Pete was quite distraught over the passing of Sifu Wong. What happened after that I don't know.


I read somewhere that Sam Dat had a sign in front of his place saying "Broken Kung Fu Repaired". This always makes me think of Pete. Any who trained under him will attest to his uncanny ability to take things apart, see how they work and reassemble them in a way that those of us with less native ability could understand. In later years he was teaching his 'conclusions' which I'll be assimilating for some time to come.

Thank you all very much indeed for the kind and respectful words about my Sifu.
He was, in his way, a great man whose refusal to compromise cost him many lesser things.

Walter D. Lavash
Los Angeles, March 16, 2010

[TenTigers]

any more info or contact info for his family?
I have some friends who knew him, and they would like to send their condolences.
Pete used to scold me in PM's (actually it was friendly ribbing) and give me pointers in SPM. I used to bounce ideas off of him from time to time. Although he was at times difficult to understand-he liked to speak in riddles, he was fun and intriguing.

[Vajramusti]

any more info or contact info for his family?
I have some friends who knew him, and they would like to send their condolences.
Pete used to scold me in PM's (actually it was friendly ribbing) and give me pointers in SPM. I used to bounce ideas off of him from time to time. Although he was at times difficult to understand-he liked to speak in riddles, he was fun and intriguing.

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Until I get some reconfirmation, I am still hoping that he is not dead. Given his love of language and accuracy he would have a time with the many meanings of "passing". At one stage of his life he helped people including professionals clean up their resumes. He wrote sometimes in a way that sounds like riddles but he was very precise in his intent- no spoonfeeding.Given his decades in the MA world he sought out in about a dozen different arts some great teachers and his knowledge in each art was far from superficial.
If he is really gone, Kisu and Walter with the help pf others should write a major article about him.

joy chaudhuri

[4 Dragons]

I hope all is well. He was my first teacher back in his CT days. Lots and lots of stance work under the bowling alley. Walker was amazing, I heard years later that he was doing Tai Chi in NYC and had in fact become a master, no surprise. William Chung came to the school a couple of times, taught meditation to us and gave demos. I missed him all the time before now and hope he is still alive and well.

[hskwarrior]

http://kungfuchris.com/master_pete_robinson

[TenTigers]

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Until I get some reconfirmation, I am still hoping that he is not dead.
joy chaudhuri

good point, Joy. Speaking of him in the past tense, without any confirmation is not good.

[Vajramusti]

good point, Joy. Speaking of him in the past tense, without any confirmation is not good.

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True. What a list of teachers he had- John Leoning, Wong Ark Yuey, William Chung,Share Lew, Kam Yuen and Gin Foon Mark.Before TCMA Pete also did kenpo and kajukenpo in Hawaii I believe.Starting as a med tech person in the Navy he knew a lot of nuts and bolts about standard medicine and later for his own development he learned a lot about TCM. He hada sharp sense for good jows and knew a lot about plasters. I still have some of the top quality jows I got from him.
He had worked with several Chinese herbalists on his jows.
He knew enough about metallurgy to make some good swords.

joy chaudhuri

[Lokhopkuen]

http://kungfuchris.com/master_pete_robinson

Thank you for posting this.

[Lokhopkuen]

Goodness true and I hope you are right. (((If he is still around he will kick my behind for posting photos here)))

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Until I get some reconfirmation, I am still hoping that he is not dead. Given his love of language and accuracy he would have a time with the many meanings of "passing". At one stage of his life he helped people including professionals clean up their resumes. He wrote sometimes in a way that sounds like riddles but he was very precise in his intent- no spoonfeeding.Given his decades in the MA world he sought out in about a dozen different arts some great teachers and his knowledge in each art was far from superficial.
If he is really gone, Kisu and Walter with the help pf others should write a major article about him.

joy chaudhuri

[sanjuro_ronin]

I don't know if he has any surviving family to confirm or deny this, his brother passed away a couple of years ago.
I don't recall him ever mentioning anyone else.
Hoping this is just one of his "fades".
Anyone know where he worked?

[Vajramusti]

I don't know if he has any surviving family to confirm or deny this, his brother passed away a couple of years ago.
I don't recall him ever mentioning anyone else.
Hoping this is just one of his "fades".
Anyone know where he worked?

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His father died and he checked up on his dad regularly. He was close to his dad.His died also just a few years ago.
I called an old phone number of his.. after many rings..it clicked into voice mail- I left my number-
there has been no call back.

joy chaudhuri

[Vajramusti]

I trued to get info on California public death records on the internet- I didn't succeed- on;ly found commercial info finders. California folks may have better luck.(Walter...?)

But FWIW on a general fung fu related topic- on the relevance of forms...I agree with what Pete has said for some time- that the forms of a good style when properly internalized contains important information on the principles and techniques of the style- and that seemingly insignificant motions can have effective applications for good teachers and students.Early in his career he said that a good student should know multiple applications of a motion. The forms are based on the engines and energies of a style.

Back in the 60s--Pete was at the cutting edge of the influx of major TCMA folks into the martial scene in the US.He accumulated tons of quality information- without chest beating.

Isn't that some photo that Kisu shared - of Pete? He was both flexible and powerful.

BTW Pete had seen/met Bruce Lee and was not a real fan -I am not referring to BL movies.

Joy Chaudhuri