Bob Bremer began training in the martial arts with his children at Ed Parker’s Kenpo school in Pasadena, California in the 1960’s. After practicing Kenpo for about two years he saw Bruce Lee demonstrate Jeet Kune Do and immediately enrolled at Bruce’s school in Los Angeles Chinatown. Bob had the second most lessons with Bruce Lee at the Chinatown school and was fortunate enough to train with Bruce at his home on Sundays. He was also a part of the original “backyard” class taught by Dan Inosanto when Bruce Lee closed his Los Angeles school and left for Hong Kong.
After retiring as a crane operator Bob began attending Tim Tackett’s Wednesday night classes and forever changed the Wednesday Night Group’s expression of Jeet Kune Do. He emphasized that JKD was about efficiency in unarmed combat and not the accumulation of techniques. He showed the importance of daily decrease and spending time on the basics. Bob was a staple of the Wednesday night class until 2010, when his health took a turn for the worse. He passed in 2012.
“In the 40-plus years that I have known Bob, his legendary status among JKD practitioners is well-deserved. To my knowledge, Bob has always strived to pass on only the techniques and aspects of Bruce Lee that he himself experienced without branching out, elaborating, embroidering on or interpreting anything beyond Bruce’s teaching. I respect Bob’s approach to teaching jeet kune do, for Bruce had much to offer that did not require updating, revising or adapting. With Bob Bremer, you get the real deal”.
Linda Lee Cadwell
“Bob really changed the way we do JKD, but he never saw himself as a teacher. When we would have to do a little teaching at a large gathering of JKD teachers and students, he didn’t want to do it. He might explain something for the students to work on then have one of us demonstrate it, but once the practice started we would see him on the floor working with 2 or 3 people. That’s how Bob preferred it. He was happiest working with a small group. His one main regret was that not enough people spent enough time working on what he taught to see how valuable it really was. Eventually, Bob became too sick to make it to class on Wednesdays. He is no longer with us, but our hope is that he is now looking down on us and seeing that we are putting the time in. Our group will always be grateful that we knew you and got the chance to work with you.”
Tim Tackett