CEO gets a kick out of karate
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If you glance at his resume, Dale Walters comes across as a very successful businessman who is a little on the, well, stodgy side.
• He is the CEO of Keats, Connelly and Associates, a Phoenix-based wealth management firm.
• He is a certified public accountant, personal financial specialist and certified financial planner, and in 2006, the Consumers’ Research Council of America named him one of the “Top Financial Planners in America.”
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Now here is what you won’t find on his resume: Walters is a four time world heavyweight karate champion and a fourth degree black belt in judo.
And it all happened through what he calls “one big accident, a culmination of events.”
It started in high school, where he was a struggling wrestler. In his junior year, he took judo lessons to help him improve as a wrestler. It worked. Walters went from being the most-pinned member of his team in his sophomore year to winning a wrestling scholarship to Drake University in Des Moines, Iowa.
He kept up with judo over the years, and when he moved to Phoenix in 1984, he started teaching a class in the sport. That is where he met Robert Trias, who introduced Okinawan karate to the United States when he returned from Navy service in World War II.
Trias, considered “the father of karate in America,” started giving Walters karate lessons. It turned out he was pretty good at it, and he went on to win world heavyweight karate titles in 1986, ‘87, ‘88 and ‘89.
To read more check out AZ Central
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