The passing of Grandmaster Shum

 Kung Fu and Tai Chi Magazine
August 2024

As everyone knows, my teacher, Grandmaster Shum, has passed away. It was on July 4th at 3:15 pm.  He was 89.

I started training in 1968 in Bethlehem, PA. I opened my first school in Scranton in 1972. The teachers I had at the time moved away. I was searching for a new teacher who fit my philosophy and the fluid techniques of the northern system of Kung Fu.

I met the Great Grandmaster Shum of the Northern Eagle Claw System in 1978 at the 34th St. school. When I walked in the door, I thought I was watching a Kung Fu movie. Students were doing weapons, 2-person sets, forms, and even the Lion Dance. I was like a kid in a candy store.

He was like my second father. In some ways, I was closer to him than I was to my real father. I’ve spent the last few days thinking about the good times that I had with him, more so than the training.

 One story I love is about how, after training one afternoon and everyone had left the school, he asked me to eat with him in Chinatown. After we ate, he asked me to go to a Kung Fu movie with him. I don’t remember the name of the movie. Of course, the dialogue was in Chinese. There were English and Chinese subtitles. I had to read the English. After about ten or fifteen minutes, he nudges me and asks if I must read the English at the bottom of the screen. I looked at him and said, “Of course I do.” He started laughing at me. He then leaned over and said he had to read the subtitles too. I laughed for like ten minutes. That’s the kind of humor he had.

 The last time I went to Dim Sum with him, he called me over to where he was sitting. He was pointing at his ear and saying diamonds. I didn’t understand. I kept looking for a diamond. Finally, he pulls out his hearing aid and says, “Expensive like a diamond and doesn’t work.”

One of the most unforgettable experiences I had with him was when I traveled with him to Hong Kong and Taiwan. In Hong Kong, I met his teacher, the Great Grandmaster Ng Wai Nung. I worked out on the rooftop of a four-story building where Ng Wai Nung lived. This was the same place that Grandmaster Shum started his training at the age of 7.

 I’ll miss him. His humor, his always yelling at me when I did a technique wrong, and the many experiences that he gave me in my life.

Love you, miss you, and may you rest in peace.

Humbly,
Your student.
Ernest Rothrock