PORT ST. LUCIE PEOPLE
Somewhere along the way, that dream was hamstrung by
an injury.
After his stint in the U.S. Marine Corps, Fabrey went into
law enforcement in his home state of Pennsylvania, combining
what he’d learned in the military with police training,
and eventually retiring in Ohio. By 1979, Fabrey also taught
in law enforcement academies, developing what he calls the
friendly force approach.
“You want to subdue a resisting subject without causing
injury to the subject or to yourself.”
Since then, he has trained instructors for the Marine Corps,
Coast Guard, FBI and law enforcement agencies throughout
the country.
Fabrey was also a martial arts consultant on movie sets,
working with actors including Chuck Norris and Sylvester
Stallone. Telly Savalas, the lollipop-sucking cop in the 1970s
television show Kojak, was one of his best students.
However, even though the movie people treated him well,
he says, “Hollywood wasn’t my place — too fast.”
Fabrey certainly made a mark for himself elsewhere. A
four-time world champion and the U.S. team coach for the
1979 Japan World Open Karate Tournament, Fabrey has been
a world record holder for breaking blocks of ice; has been
inducted into various halls of fame; has written training programs
FORT
and magazine articles; and holds patents for several
Port St. Lucie Magazine 41
military/law enforcement products.
In 1996, Fabrey helped train 2,500 volunteer officers from
50 countries for the Atlanta Olympics. For two weeks, day
and night, he trained officers in handling threats according to
U.S. law.
“In Russia, for example, they were used to breaking heads
and dragging bodies — you can’t do that in Atlanta,” he says.
After a lifetime of high-profile instruction however, Fabrey
divides his time between sailing, writing, watching his
youngest grandson and instructing kids in martial arts at the
Police Athletic League in Port St. Lucie, where the family has
lived since 2004. He is assisted in classes by his wife, Kathy, a
former student and an eighth degree black belt.
Rounding out the instructional staff are son, Joe; daughter,
Dawn; and Rich Wilson, one of Fabrey’s students from Ohio
who settled in Port St. Lucie and encouraged his former
teacher to follow suit. The three Fabrey grandchildren are
enrolled in the program.
“It’s important to train the leaders of tomorrow early,”
Fabrey says. “They learn martial arts, but we never raise our
voices. We build them up. It’s a sweet Marine discipline approach.”
Patriarch of the three-generation martial arts family, Fabrey
has been breaking boards, stacks of windows and blocks of
ice — and teaching others how to do the same — for 60 years.
Nearing 80, he describes himself like the old Timex watch
ads: “Takes a licking and keeps on ticking.” E
ROBERT FABREY
Age: 79
Lives in: Port St. Lucie
Occupation: Retired police officer;
volunteer martial arts director
for Port St. Lucie Police Athletic
League
Family: Wife, Kathy, for 44
years; daughter, Dawn; son, Joe;
grandchildren, Carter, Carmen and “Chief”
Education: California University of Pennsylvania,
University of Metaphysics
Hobbies: Martial arts, sailing
Who or what inspires me: “Being alive, having survived
many bad situations.”
Something most people don’t know about me: “I’m quite
private, cocooned as a family, who is my life.”
PIERCE
Fabrey was a chief instructor for the security force at the 1996 Atlanta
Olympics, training other volunteer law enforcement officers from 50 countries
to keep the peace despite language and cultural differences.
“Breaking” — whether ice, boards or shown here from 1989 windowpanes
— is used in competition or for demonstration purposes. Fabrey
never considers these tricks or showing off but rather, demonstrations of
proper technique and mental focus.