Dean Pickard is the founder, and former head instructor, of the USKL. Shihan Pickard began his training in the martial arts in 1965, studying Japanese Shorin-ryu while attending college.
From 1966 to 1970 Shihan Pickard trained under W. K. Nishioka and R. T. Nakano of the Statewide Karate League. Beginning in 1972, Shihan Pickard broadened his studies to include such styles as: Shito-ryu; Shotokan; Korean Tae Kwan Do; and Tai Chi Ch'uan with Prof. Wen Shan Huang. Shihan Pickard has also studied kickboxing and the Filipino and Chinese arts under Dan Inosanto at the Kali Academy in Torrence, California.
In addition to teaching at the United States Karates League, Shihan Pickard has taught martial arts in the physical education departments at Pomona College (serving the Claremont Colleges), L. A. Mission College, and Moorpark College. He also sponsored the Pierce College Karate Club from 1984 to 1992.
Shihan Pickard's publications on the martial arts include:
- "Philosophy, Spirit, and the Martial Arts," USKL,1993;
- "United Stated Karate League Training Manual", Vols. 1-3, with Ty Aponte, 1992;
- "Martial Arts and Meditative Disciplines," Black Belt Magazine, June, 1979.
Shihan Pickard graduated from the University of California, Riverside with a BA, cum Laude, Phi Beta Kappa; recieved an M.A. from C.S.U. Long Beach where he was nominated to the Graduate Dean's list; and received his Ph.D. from the Claremont Graduate University where he received two fellowships. He is professor of philosophy and humanities at Pierce College and is adjunct professor at California State University, Northridge.
His most recent published works include:
- "Nietzsche, Emancipation, & Truth" in New Nietzsche Studies, eds. B. Babich (Fordham/Georgetown) & D. Allison (SUNY) ,Winter, 1997;
- "Logic, Truth, and Reasoning: A Textbook in Critical Thinking", 1997;
- "The Problem of Reflexivity in Habermasian Universalism," Auslegung, Vol. 19, #1, Winter, 1993, pp 1-20.
He has had several book reviews published and has written two textbooks on philosophy. He was selected for a liberty Fund Grant & colloquium on human experience of liberty in 1998; selected for Who's Who Among America's Teachers (by the top 5% of America's students) in 1996 and 1998; and received a National Endowment for the Humanities Summer Institute Grant in 1995.
