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Master Vaughn is a 6th
Dan Master Instructor in the World Tang Soo Do
Association. He also holds a 6th Degree Black Belt
in Sin Moo Hapkido. As of 2010, he has forty years
of training and experience in martial arts. Master
Vaughn’s path of instruction in Tang Soo Do began on
October 20, 1970. He had returned from a tour of
duty in Vietnam and was looking for solace.
Master Vaughn had been
a staff sergeant in the Long Range Patrol, C Company
Ranger of the 75th Infantry, Airborne. When he
returned to the United States and his home in
Philipsburg, Pennsylvania, he was looking for more
peaceful endeavors. Master Vaughn’s first instructor
in Tang Soo Do was Master Michael White who was a
new Cho Dan (first degree black belt) at the time.
Master Vaughn achieved his Cho Dan in 1974 and began
to teach at the Phillipsburg YMCA and from there he
moved to the State College YMCA. Undoubtedly, it is
these beginnings that have motivated Master Vaughn
to remain devoted to the delivery of quality martial
arts instruction through local YMCAs.
Master Vaughn
eventually turned the YMCA instruction over to
colleagues so that he could begin the Penn State
Martial Arts Group (PSMAG) on the main campus of
Penn State, which is still a flourishing dojang in
the World Tang Soo Do Association. It was the
contacts Master Vaughn made in the early stages of
the PSMAG that permitted him to play an instrumental
role in establishing the World Tang Soo Do
Association’s first delegation to China and the
Shaolin Temple in 1984. After turning the PSMAG
program over to Master Michael Kaye in 1989, Master
Vaughn trained at the Shin Karate Studio in
Philadelphia and opened the Vaughn’s Dojang at the
Phoenixville and Pottstown YMCAs. In August, 1998,
he achieved a lifelong dream when he opened his
first full-time commercial studio in his present
home in Audubon Village.
A gifted and natural teacher, Master Vaughn has
produced over one-hundred black belt practitioners
in Tang Soo Do. The Vaughn’s Dojang studio and
programs have over three hundred active students.
Master Vaughn has been heard to say many times that
he does not produce black belts for himself, but he
is motivated instead by watching students discover
the hidden warrior inside, by seeing the positive
change that comes about and by being able to turn
his black belt practitioners over to his instructor,
Kwan Chang Nim, Jae C. Shin, of the World Tang Soo
Do Association.
Master Vaughn is married to Sharon, and has been
blessed with five children: Prudence, Melanie,
Melinda, Brandon, and Molly. In addition to his
commitment to the YMCA, he and Vaughn's dojang have
a longstanding association with the Freedoms
Foundation in Valley Forge for which he hosts annual
fundraising and charitable drives.
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