Los Alamos Tae Kwon Do students earn promotions in historic program

Two headmasters traveled from New Jersey to Los Alamos to test students for promotions and help officiate a karate demonstration, turning a belt exam into a public reminder of how long the town’s tae kwon do program has endured.

Ron Geoffrion and James Cahill evaluated local students on Saturday, May 2, in a program tied to the USA Tae Kwon Do Masters Association’s Los Alamos branch, which began in the winter of 1969 at the Los Alamos YMCA. The school’s history stretches back to one class with eight students and later expanded to nine classes with slightly less than 200 students across Northern New Mexico.

That continuity is what separates this promotion test from a routine club event. The Los Alamos branch has operated continuously since 1969 and describes itself as the oldest martial arts school in Los Alamos and one of the oldest in New Mexico. It also became sponsored by the Los Alamos County Recreation Department in the late 1970s, putting the program squarely into the town’s public recreation network.

Geoffrion’s own path mirrors the school’s longevity. He began tae kwon do in 1973, started teaching a class at Los Alamos National Laboratory in 1975 and became chief instructor of the Los Alamos tae kwon do schools in 1978. Grandmaster Duk Sung Son awarded him a Masters Certificate in 1997, and Geoffrion later became an 8th degree black belt and a headmaster in 2020.

For families, the promotions marked another step in a structured program that still reaches children and adults through county and YMCA offerings. The Los Alamos County recreation directory lists USA Tae Kwon Do Masters Association classes at Chamisa School Gym, Los Alamos Middle School Cafeteria, Piñon School Gym and Barranca Gym, with monthly fees of $25 for those under 18, $35 for adults and $55 for a family. The Family YMCA in Los Alamos says the class is open to ages 9 and up, teaches basics, forms and 3-step sparring, uses non-contact sparring and requires new students to observe a class before registering.

Taken together, the promotion test, the visiting headmasters and the demonstration showed a neighborhood-scale institution that has lasted for generations. In Los Alamos, the belts now being earned still connect back to the same school, the same county facilities and the same lineage that began more than half a century ago.