4th degree Judo black belt, Paul Owen-Sensei, passed away Sunday at the age of 94. He was still practicing and teaching Judo at Roseberry's Martial Arts Center. Sensei Paul contributed so much to our dojo and the Judo program, he will be missed.One amazing thing that I recall about Sensi Paul was that one class he was showing a group of kids how to pin somebody and called me over to demonstrate. He pinned me and told me to escape. As hard as I tried, I couldn't. I eventually had to give up when I noticed a blood stain on the elbow of his judogi. His skin was so thin that it would tear easily and I had torn a big flap loose. I fealt horrible. He just shrugged it off and said "oh, that happens." He let me lead him over to the first aide kit and bandage him up and then he was back out on the mat.
Sensi Paul also had a stubborn will to keep going. He'd be sitting on the mat and if you offered him a hand getting up, he'd refuse and stand on his own -- very slowly, but on his own.
Sensi Ray Peterson posted a comment on the Jui-Jutsu Fighter Blog about how he was never able to choke Sensi Paul. I remember one class where Sensi Paul was teaching choking techniques and had one of the students try to choke him. If you let go before he patted-out, he'd ask "why did you stop?" and make you do it again.
In November of 2004, the Lincoln Journal Star published an article about Sensei Paul. Sensi Conan already reproduced it on the Jui-Jutsu Fighter Blog, so I won't duplicate it here.
KHAS-TV in Hastings did a news piece on Sensei Paul a couple of years ago. The video works fine in Internet Explorer, but not in Firefox for some reason.
Sensi Paul's funeral is set for Wednesday in Lincoln. It is at 4:00 at First Plymouth Church, 20th and D Streets. See the obituary in the Lincoln Journal Star for details.
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