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Details RE
arker/Cerio relationship
March 21 2005 at 12:10 PM
No score for this post"KENPOJOE" Rebelo * (Login KENPOJOE)
from IP address 64.12.116.66
"Hi Folks!
I was asked the other night to look at Kenponet and post regarding this particular thread. I know that I have posted to various boards on this matter and I will make an active point of adding this particular post to the FAQ on my website to insure that people can refer to it in the future.
1.Nick Cerio-Ed Parker relationship:
Nick Cerio initially met Mr. Parker at a Karate tournament in New York in the mid to late 1960's,when Mr. Parker was travelling throughout the USA,attending various major karate events [remember: Back then major karate tournaments were far and few between]. Mr. Cerio became the new england IKKA representative at that time and awarded IKKA Black Belt certificates [the small certificates with the japanese kanji as opposed to the chinese writing] to various individuals [such as Bill Marciarelli of Fall River]under the auspices of the IKKA because Mr. Parker trusted Mr. Cerio to do so and promote the IKKA. I saw one of those certificates when I visited Mr. Marciarelli's second floor dojo [upstairs via spiral staircase from the weightlifting gym] and saw the most amount of pictures /posters [all autographed] of Prof Chow I had ever seen in my life in one place! There, he [marciarelli] had a small IKKA certificate promoting him to one of his black belt degrees with Mr. Parker's,Mr. Cerio's and Ernest Lieb's [president of the AKA] signature. I found it strange that Ernest Lieb's name was listed as a signature on the board and phoned Mr. Parker about it. He told me "I would never have ernest lieb sign one of my certificates.". I do not think that is a disparaging remark about Mr. Lieb, rather stating that only kenpo people normally signed board listings. Perhaps that was one of the reasons that Mr. Cerio left the IKKA initially.
In 1969,Nick Cerio and Bill Marciarelli would go to Hawaii to train with Bill Chun and Prof. Chow. I personally have a copy of the honolulu inquirer newspaper article [provided by Mr. Marciarelli's student]that was written regarding Prof Chow and the visiting Black Belts from New England. Both Prof. Cerio and GM Marciarelli have both told me stories of their training with Prof. Chow over the years and I interviewed Mr. Marciarelli for my TV show and featured pictures of his training with Chow. BTW, Marciarelli went back in 1981 and met again with Chow and had his son test before Prof.Chow at that time. But I digress...
Nick Cerio would associate himself with Prof. Chow in the late 1960's -early 1970's and list himself as receiving his 3rd or 5th dan from Chow [I have the 1968,69 and 71 tournament programs from Mr. Marciarelli's event that clearly list Mr. Cerio's ranks and affiliations st that time]. Later, He would study Hung Gar/Sil Lum under Gin Fong Chin and after attending a local karate tournament, Chin would state "you are just as good as those people wearing 8th degree" and promote him [cerio] to eighth degree with the title of "sifu". Later he [cerio] would use the title "shihan" and was known by this title prior to Chow's death. In the early 1980's, Then "Shihan" Cerio, along with Kalaii Griffin and Tony & Doreen Cogliandro contacted Mr. Parker regarding joining the IKKA and reactivating it throughout New England. The first IKKA new england meeting was held at Revere Karate Academy in revere,ma in 1983. [photos of the meeting were featured in issues of inside karate and official karate magazines at that time]Mr. Leo Lacerte of New Bedford,MA, one of my old kung fu instructors & a person who i had tested with under another instructor in Kenpo karate [New England {villari based}]for our black belts together, was at that meeting and at one point would ask prof. cerio if they could use the parker names of the techniques for techniques they already had. Prof. Cerio stated "no" because they were already established in the Parker system, however, after Prof. Cerio left the IKKA, he would do just that himself for his own system [NCK],leading to confusion between parker/cerio students in regards to certain techniques. During that time frame, Mr. Parker would promote Nick Cerio to the rank of 9th degree black belt through the IKKA...now for the rest of the story [to quote paul harvey]Many of the EPAK seniors knew that Mr. Parker would only promote someone in EPAK up to the rank of seventh degree black belt at that timeframe. Anyone who received an 8th Degree or above was in THEIR RESPECTIVE ARTS and not in EPAK! {such as Elvis Presley,Toru Tanaka [Charlie Kalani],Kalaii Griffin,etc...}This was not common knowledge among most people but it was known among the hierarchy in the IKKA [Hence the reason Joe Palanzo may asked that he and huk be promoted to 8th degree after Mr. Parker's death],So, although it was a large IKKA certificate that was awarded Prof. Cerio, it was in recognizition of his art and his "contributions to the art" and the promotion of the IKKA in New England. Prof. Cerio would leave the IKKA shortly thereafter and I willl not dicuss the possible or probable reasons for that on this forum. To the best of my knowledge,There is no expiration date line on prof cerio's certificate but that was done on certificates afterwards to avoid "hit and run" promotions where people would test under Mr. Parker and then never train in EPAK. I have old IKKA small certificates and even one Large IKKA BB rank certificate that had expiration dates on them so that practice was done during the 1980's. I will look back at the thread to see if there are any questions I haven't addressed but I hope this will clarrify the situation. Thankfully, I was there when a lot of these things were happening and/or asked the individuals involved personally and sometimes have them on video detailing out these incidents/events.
I hope that I was of some service,
KENPOJOE"
