Mr_Miller

Mr. Buddy Miller

Kitei-Shodan Black Belt

Danzan Ryu Jujutsu / Hikari Ryuza Ryu Jujutsu®

Hikari Ryuza Ryu Do Kan®

Mr. Miller

The story begins in August of 1934, when I was born in Southern California. For seven years I lived in and around the area of Inglewood doing what kids do. Starting school, going to Saturday matinees at the local theater, building rafts to paddle around in the swamp that is now part of LAX and all those good things of life. In the fall of 1941, we moved to Northern California and my father started working on submarines in the shipyard at Mare Island in Vallejo. We had many moves during the next few years that included Saint Helena, Vallejo, Sonoma, Windsor and Healdsburg. With my dad's new lady friend, Healdsburg became home for the next decade.

Settling in one community finally brought some stability to our lives. My father and a partner started their own business and we built a home on a 300 acre ranch. My high school years were very enjoyable. I participated in several sports, mainly football and track, drama productions, student government and took college prep classes. Not that I was planning on college at the time, it just seemed to be the curriculum that attracted me and many of my friends. I had assumed that I would follow my father in the plumbing business, but I have to admit that I was getting tired of crawling under houses. You find all kinds of things there and most are not very pleasant. My senior year was especially gratifying; I had a lead role in two drama productions, was a starter on the football team and had some success on the track. At graduation I was one of the speakers and with the insistence of my English teacher, had applied for admission to U.C. Berkeley. Being accepted (it was easier to get in back in those days), brought major changes to my life.

At Berkeley, I was planning to become an engineer. That is until I discovered calculus. Actually, I didn't "discover" calculus so I changed majors. My football career at Berkeley lasted just my freshman year. I found too many distractions in the college life to remain focused on just a few things that took so much time. The next two years provided a wonderful opportunity to discover aspects of ones young life that I never knew existed. My father died, at age 50, during my junior year. I was very tempted to quit school and get a real job. Though I didn't know it at the time, there were many life lessons being learned that would prove to be useful in the future to both me and in applying it to my career. That career turned out to be in education. During my senior year, my roommate set up blind date for me with his girl friend's roommate. That young woman became my wife in 1957 and we will celebrate our 53 anniversary in 2010.

The next 37 years were remarkably stable compared to the early years of my life. Five of those years were spent back at my old high school in Healdsburg, where I taught mostly social studies classes, coached football and track and served as department head. During this period we were gifted with three fine sons, all of whom have graduated from college and have jobs in the Bay Area. Our youngest son has given us four grandchildren. We left Healdsburg in 1963 and moved to Sunnyvale. I began teaching in the Sequoia High School District in Redwood City and remained there until my retirement in 1994. Again I was primarily a Social Studies teacher, football and track coach, counselor and department head. In 1965 I picked up a game day job on the sideline with the San Francisco 49ers which I held for 42 years. My youngest son now serves in that capacity.

In 1997, feeling somewhat bored with retirement, the housing prices, and an ailing mother-in-law living in Nevada City; we decided to leave the Bay Area and move to Nevada County. After that move was complete and a few years to "settle in," I was again looking for something to occupy my time. In 2002 the opportunity to join the sheriff's department as a volunteer presented itself and I thought that it would be a totally new, interesting and challenging experience for me.

In fact, the past 8 years with the department have proven to be new, interesting and challenging. The challenging part began during our service academy training when we were introduced to Dr. Crimi and his defensive Jujutsu techniques. Most of the trainees had never been exposed to the martial arts in any form, let alone Jujutsu. The training was intended to give us a few basic defensive techniques such as escapes that could be applied if the need should arise. A few of us saw this training as a way to become more fit, more secure with our own body and way of learning and understanding more about the philosophy of the Martial Arts.

Our weekly gatherings at the Hikari Ryuza Ryu Dojo® have provided a sense of pride, fulfillment and a feeling of accomplishment. Dr. Crimi is able to assess an individual, both the physical attributes and the mental attitude that they bring to the Dojo and develop a program suited to that individual. He has a way of doing this even in a group setting. Some may come in with a feeling that these techniques are nothing more than movie theatrics but he can very easily and quickly (and safely, I might add) convince you that these methods, when learned and executed properly, are indeed methods that can be used to defend and protect oneself, but it goes beyond the physical. Equally important is the mental frame of mind that comes into play in a given situation. Many of the discussions and stories related at our meetings demonstrate that the physical confrontations can be avoided and situations calmed orally rather than with physical force. The instructional staff at the dojo, under Dr. Crimi's direction and guidance, also have exceptional qualities, patience and understanding of our needs. We in turn have gained an appreciation for and some understanding of the culture of the Martial Arts. A degree of dedication has resulted in our becoming more physically fit, more secure in our environment and a feeling of accomplishment. The accomplishment has been the working through the ranks to the level of Kitei (foundation) Shodan Black Belt. The lessons learned in that journey can be applied to our daily lives and our relationships with other people. Not just the physical techniques acquired, but the culture and philosophies of the Martial Arts genre. The Hikari Ryuza Ryu Do Kan® is an experience in life and living, not just a work out facility.

I am grateful for the opportunities that have been extended to me by Dr. Crimi and the Hikari Ryuza Ryu Do Kan ® that have allowed me to expand my perspectives on life and the living, and thus, one's life story continues.