Sensei Sherman J. Harrill 

Sensei Sherman J. Harrill
(1941 - 2002)

    Sensei Sherman Harrill was born on May 11, 1941. He proudly served in the United States Marine Corp. While stationed with the Marines on Okinawa, Harrill Sensei tagged along with bunkmates Charlie Conor, John DeSantis and Gary Baker to attend a class at Tatsuo Shimabuku's karate dojo in Agena. This began a 42 year journey into the depths of Isshinryu karate. Sensei Harrill often made the comment that he was neither his sensei's favorite or best student, but there is serious room for debate on the latter. Harrill Sensei passed away November 4, 2002 from complications from cancer surgery.


In 1983 the three very wonderful girls shown in the picture above were killed in an auto accident. Two of them were Sensei's daughters and the other was a daughter of his first student Gregg Eggers. All that have learned from Sensei Harrill owe a huge debt of thanks to these girls, because they encouraged him to start teaching karate.