Dr. John Marcus
John Marcus was born in Los Angeles in 1953. After High School he traveled around the world visiting such places as Hong Kong, Japan, Nepal, India, Thailand, Iran and Afghanistan. Seeing first hand other cultures and learning about their views of the world. Returning home he spent two years at the University of Colorado Boulder. Transferring to UCLA, he then received a BA in Philosophy. Looking for different answers about the universe he pursued the study of quantum mechanics thru experimental investigation of Superfluid Helium and received a PhD in Physics from UCLA.
On the lighter side he spent time doing Tae Kwon Do, Bicycling and Sailing. After navigating a sailboat from Los Angeles to Honolulu in the Transpac race, he earned his USGC Captains License. He fished and delivered boats along the West Coast from Costa Rica to Alaska. Being active in the local boating community, he served multiple terms on the board of directors of a local yacht club, as well as, serving as Port Captain, Secretary and chairing the Long Range Planning Committee and By-Laws Committee.
Joining with a friend and his father in a startup manufacturing company, he was responsible for developing products for sale to General Motors and implementing the required quality control programs. He was involved in taking out several US patents relating to the manufacturing business. During this time period he was a frequent visitor to Japan interfacing with several contract manufactures in Osaka. He also served on several National Standards committees developing product safety standards. This business was sold to a large fortune 500 company and was moved to the Detroit area.
He was then hired by Pacific Transducer Corp. (PTC) in West Los Angeles which he then acquired. He has been there for the last 25 years developing products as well as forming and running an ISO 17025 accredited calibration laboratory, PTC Metrology. PTC has customers around the world and continues to manufacture instruments of the highest quality.
In the meantime John married his wife, Jacklyn Marcus PhD and they had two children. Along with other activities he studied kick boxing for 5 years (as much as the body would allow), is a volunteer at the local police station as a reserve officer, holds a Private Investigators License and pursued firearms training as a martial art. Current interests beyond Hwarang Do include machinery design and fabrication, knife making, gunsmithing, target and combat shooting and archery.
In 2009 he meet Grandmaster Lee while enrolling his son in the green belt program. Having a lifelong interest in martial arts he began training in Gumtoogi under Grandmaster’s watchful eye. After a bit of a bumpy start he became fully enthralled not only with Gumtoogi but the ideals and mission of Hwarang Do. John and his wife Jacklyn have been made to feel very welcome by the entire Lee family and the Hwarang Do family. He has become close friends with Grandmaster Lee often exchanging both philosophical and practical ideas for the future of Hwarang Do.