Ross Rumbell Award Recipient: 2009

English and staying for up to two years.  He promised his future wife that we would return, but he never did.  Instead, he convinced her to immigrate to Canada where he went on to have profound impact on the nation’s karate community. First introduced to the sport in his teens after losing both of his parents at 15 years old.  He trained in the sport while continuing his post-secondary education to become a social studies teacher. He used the local parks as venue.  Several students noticed this and approached him for instruction leading to the initial outdoor club where he had 35 students.  Within months a dojo location had been organized at the Sunset Community Centre in East Vancouver. A prominent instructor, coach and official, Master Sato’s was the first Head Coach for Karate BC where he guided hundreds of students to championship events.  Master Sato was the first Canadian to achieve a WKF (WUKO) judge license in 1982.  He was also a Pan American Karate Federation referee. He holds a 9th Dan Certificate from Karate Canada and continues to teach Karate to young and old. He was recognized as a pioneer of Karate at the Tokyo Budo-kan, in conjunction with the Tokyo Olympics.