Tommy Gong, new SLO County clerk-recorder, has passion for martial arts

Tommy Gong, 49, who will be sworn in as the new San Luis Obispo County clerk-recorder Jan. 5, brings to the office not only a passion for ballots, but also a passion for martial artist Bruce Lee.

Myriad experiences led Gong to pursue political office, which he considers living the American dream.

He spent his youth in the small Central Valley town of Riverbank, where his parents ran a grocery store, a tradition started by his grandfather, who immigrated to the United States from China. Gong, who is the only son but has three sisters, stocked shelves, bagged groceries and learned the business.

“We were the only Chinese family in Riverbank, but I never felt discrimination,” he said. “There was a mutual respect because we were all working long hours to make a living.”

Gong did well academically, graduating as valedictorian from high school, then earning a bachelor’s degree from UC Berkeley and a master’s degree in business administration from San Francisco State.

“My parents worked long, hard hours at the grocery store to put me and my sisters through college,” he said.

While at Berkeley, Gong began to study martial arts and became a student of Ted Wong, a former student and close friend of legendary martial artist Bruce Lee.

“I was always a childhood fan of Bruce Lee, growing up with his shows,” Gong said. “Taking the classes was a way for me to feel like I could get to know him better.”

Rosemary Gong, his older sister, said she showed the TV show “The Green Hornet” to her younger brother one day and that he was smitten.

“It’s phenomenal to think about Tommy and the Bruce Lee organization now,” she said. “That is just like Tommy. … When he gets something in his mind and gets passionate about it, he goes for it full force.”

Tommy Gong passionately pursued Lee’s martial arts system and philosophy, known as Jeet Kune Do, and eventually became close friends with Lee’s widow, Linda Lee Cadwell.

Cadwell in the early 1990s started the Bruce Lee Foundation, a nonprofit organization dedicated to educational outreach programs intended to inspire and motivate youths through Lee’s martial arts and personal philosophies. Gong has been involved ever since.

“I consider him a really good friend as well as a promoter of Bruce’s way of martial arts,” Cadwell said of Gong. “He is someone who wants to preserve and protect his martial arts.”

Shortly after graduating, Gong was called back to the Central Valley to run the family grocery store, then in Patterson — which he did for 10 years.

He married his wife, Sherry, in 1997 at a large, traditional Chinese ceremony and celebration in San Francisco attended by more than 1,000 people.

“I figured that was what I was going to do with my life,” Gong said of the family business.

But that wasn’t the case.

In 2002, the family decided to sell the store as competition with large supermarket chains descending on the small town became fierce.

Gong began to look outside of the family business for a new career, landing his first job in the public sector as an elections manager in 2003 in Stanislaus County.

He found support from his family.

“My dad saw the benefits, like actual days off,” he said. “It put us into the mainstream.”

Gong immersed himself in his new career, enthralled by his new role in preserving history.

“The clerk-recorder’s office is critical because of its rich history,” Gong said. “It is from history that we know where we came from, how we came to today and where we want to be tomorrow.”

In 2005, he moved to San Luis Obispo County to work as the assistant county clerk-recorder. He and his family, including sons Derek and Darin, live in Atascadero.

During his career, he has remained devoted to his martial arts practice, authoring a book, “Bruce Lee — The Evolution of a Martial Artist.” Proceeds go to the Bruce Lee Foundation.

The self-published book, Cadwell said, is as genuine as it gets. It’s selling well in the United States, but Gong hopes to get it published in China as well.

Gong’s martial arts experience is ever present in his daily routine.

“A lot of people would say that I am calm,” Gong said. “I would like to think that this is something that comes from my martial arts training.”

Gong has a collection of framed historical ballots from the Abraham Lincoln, John F. Kennedy and other presidential elections, which he will hang on the walls of his new office when he succeeds longtime county Clerk-Recorder Julie Rodewald, who retired this year.

“He is a very motivated young man who will do well in whatever he has chosen to do,” Cadwell said of Gong. “He has a lot of energy to put into achieving what he wants to accomplish. He is very devoted to his art, his family and friends and to this job that he is undertaking for the county.”

This story was originally published December 29, 2014 at 12:31 PM with the headline "Tommy Gong, new SLO County clerk-recorder, has passion for martial arts."