Senei Haruo Imamura, a part-time judo instructor in the Department of Kinesiology, died Sept. 19 at the age of 84 after a battle with colon cancer.

Imamura joined the University in 1980 and went on to form the very first Fresno State Judo Club, which was later run by his sons, Randy and Richard. His granddaughter, Miranda Imamura, a Fresno State pre-nursing student, won a national judo title for the Fresno State Judo Club in 2016 and last month competed for a world title in Taipei, Taiwan. As a highly decorated and respected leader in the field of judo, Imamura was one of only two ninth-degree black belts living in the U.S.

The University's U.S. and California flags were posted at half-staff, under the direction of President Joseph I. Castro, on Sept. 24th in Imamura's honor. Read more here and here.