Robert Everhart, Martial Arts Instructor And Competitor, 58

[DGH]

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http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/08/19/AR2008081902794.html

Robert Everhart, 58; Martial Arts Instructor, Competitor

By Yvonne Shinhoster Lamb, Washington Post Staff Writer

Robert Eugene Everhart, 58, a karate teacher and top competitor who
trained thousands of Washington area residents in the martial arts,
died July 27 [2008] at the Rock Creek Manor Nursing Center in the
District [Washington DC]. He had brain cancer.

Although he also taught adults, Mr. Everhart had a particular interest
in using the Japanese martial arts to help children in the District.
To many of his students, he became a role model and father figure.

"His focus was not only martial arts," said Jacqueline Miller Byrd, a
family friend. "It was making sure the children were educated.
Students had to do their homework before practice."

Along with operating his own Japanese karate school on Capitol Hill
for more than 25 years, Mr. Everhart also ran after-school programs
and summer camps for children. He held karate classes at several D.C.
Public schools and at YMCAs and YWCAs in far Northeast Washington
[DC].

Mr. Everhart was rated among the top karate competitors on the East
Coast. He also was the first African American to be awarded the rank
of 8th degree black belt by the Dai Nippon Butoku Kai, a martial arts
organization founded in 1895 and with headquarters in Japan.

At his own studio, Everhart's Nippon Kenpo Karate Do, he trained more
than 3,500 people. His students performed across the Washington [DC]
area and appeared at the Kennedy Center in 2001.

He did not believe in watering down the instructions required for
students to advance to the high level of black "A student must work
with full intention to obtain full effect," he wrote on his Web site.
"The martial arts are made for everyone, but everyone is not made for
the martial arts. The easy belt exams and the lack of attention that
some instructors give their students regarding the basic details are a
crying shame."

Mr. Everhart, a Washington native who graduated cum laude from the old
Mackin High School, became interested in the martial arts as a
youngster through his stepfather.

He received an associate degree in electrical engineering from the
Milwaukee School of Engineering, attended engineering school at Howard
University and was a project engineer with what became the Federal
Aviation Administration before switching to karate full time in 1965.

He trained under John Womble, martial arts coordinator for the D.C.
Department of Recreation and the first black American to receive a
black belt. Since 1974, Mr. Everhart had been a student of noted
instructor Hiroshi Hamada.

Mr. Everhart performed in more than 200 demonstrations across the
United States and Japan. He won numerous karate trophies, martial arts
championships and titles, including the Kanto Sho (Great Spirit)
award.

Mr. Everhart sponsored national karate tournaments in the Washington
[DC] area, and he co-founded Promoters Plus, a martial arts competitor-
ranking system in the mid-Atlantic region. He was a past vice
president of the World Organization of Martial Arts Athletes.

He also owned Everhart's Enterprises Trophies and Awards for more than
20 years.

His marriage to Tonja L. Everhart ended in divorce.

Survivors include three daughters, Robyn Everhart, Ryann Everhart and
Rayla Everhart, all of the District; his mother, Bessie Thomas Kelly
of Columbia; his stepfather, James B. Thomas Jr. of Columbia
[Maryland]; and two half brothers, James B. Thomas III of Landover and
Barry J. Thomas of Columbia.