11/20/2025
Last night, Grandmaster Hee Il Cho, my father, shared openly and honestly about all he has been going through, and it was the most heartfelt demonstration of what I consider makes him the embodiment of a true master.
He recounted overcoming the many health hurdles he faced over the years from his open heart operation to surgery on his two shoulders, two surgeries on his spinal cord, and one major abdominal operation in addition to his strokes last year.
Yet at age 85, he perseveres and comes alive as soon as he steps into the dojang, energized even more by the presence of his students—his most senior students now approaching 70 years themselves. It’s the responsibility my father has felt and committed to so unwaveringly to carry on the art of Tae Kwon Do. To show by living example what it means to honor your art, live by your principles, and embody integrity.
He chose to keep quiet about what he thought made him “old” and “weak,” but his resilience in the face of such human vulnerability is what I think makes him so superhuman and why generations of students around the world continue to praise him and aspire to emulate his spirit.
I am constantly awed to be his daughter, and those of us who got to be his students have truly been part of a historic, living and breathing legacy.
-Jasmine Cho
