Tuesday, December 6, 2022
My condolences to Brian, Crystal, and family. I met Landon in Winston-Salem when he was 18 and I was 38. He’d come to Winston to attend classes at Forsyth Community College. While here, he, John Maynard, and I started a Kung Fu class in the basement of my church—the Ardmore Christian Church. Several others attended, but all except I drifted away, and Landon returned to Boone. Shortly thereafter he got it in his head that he would make sure I earned the same black belt he had received when he was 16 or so. For nearly four years he drove down from Boone to Winston, and for five hours each Thursday we trained and discussed at length Landon’s ideas about philosophy, history, and martial arts. Landon finally got me to black belt when I was 43, and then we just sort of drifted away from each other. We met for coffee a couple of times a few years back, but I hadn’t seen him since. He was a genius-boy possessing enormous talent, and could do just about anything he set his mind to. His passing is a grievous loss to me and mine.
