GREG DILLON Get the Book

About Greg Dillon

Farm kid, athlete, tenth-degree black belt, medical first responder, husband, father, grandfather, and great-grandfather. A life told in seven chapters.

Greg Dillon, author of L.O.V.E., smiling at sunset.

The short version

He learned to work before he learned to fight.

Greg Dillon likes to say he grew up between a cornfield and a coal mine. Born and raised in Otwell, Indiana, he spent his childhood in a community where everybody had a part to play. Children helped bring in the hay, caught chickens and turkeys, gathered eggs for his grandmother Mim, and learned that what they did affected somebody other than themselves. Long before karate became part of his identity, there was family, hard work, and responsibility.

Greg Dillon as a young boy with his grandfather in front of the family barn, 1958.
Greg with his grandfather in front of the family barn, 1958.

Otwell, Indiana

A Dillon from Otwell

Greg Dillon likes to say he grew up between a cornfield and a coal mine. Born and raised in Otwell, a small farming and mining community in southern Indiana, he spent his childhood in a place where everybody had a part to play.

Children helped bring in the hay, caught chickens and turkeys, gathered eggs for his grandmother Mim, and learned that what they did affected somebody other than themselves. His grandparents' farm had an old wooden barn under a metal roof, with room for two tractors, the horses, a chicken roost, a corn crib, and a hayloft above it all. Long before karate became part of his identity, there was family, hard work, and responsibility.

"I learned to work before I learned to fight."

A teenage Greg Dillon riding the 1973 Yamaha 350 he bought with his brother.
Greg on the 1973 Yamaha 350 he and his younger brother bought with money earned baling hay and catching turkeys for the co-op.

Curiosity

The book fair, the motorcycle, and the banana boat

His curiosity about martial arts began with a book he found at a school book fair. He cannot remember the title, but he remembers the cover: a martial artist kicking up into the air. That book awakened curiosity, and curiosity made him search.

The search led to a YMCA roughly twenty miles away. Greg and his brother had saved the money they earned baling hay and catching turkeys for the co-op, and together they bought a 1973 Yamaha 350. When weather made the motorcycle impractical, he drove an old 1963 Oldsmobile Cutlass with four doors, an AM radio, and no air conditioning. They called it the old banana boat. That motorcycle is still sitting in his garage today.

"Success has a way of hiding its own beginning."

Greg Dillon receiving his first-degree black belt from Master Gene Gross, 1980.
Greg receiving his first-degree black belt from Master Gene Gross, 1980.

Teachers

The teachers who built his stance

In a wooden handball room at the YMCA, Greg trained under Master Tanaka, a Japanese student studying theology at Oakland City College who taught discipline, philosophy, and faith alongside technique. At Oakland City College, where Greg studied vocational technology, his auto-diesel instructor Earl Heacock, a Marine who had trained in Okinawa, and the lightning-fast Randy Beard became training partners and teachers.

After Master Tanaka returned to Japan, Greg drove sixty miles to train with Gene Gross, and in 1980 he earned his first-degree black belt. Years later, Grandmaster George Dillman showed him new layers inside techniques he thought he already knew. Every time he listened seriously, his understanding became larger rather than smaller.

"When I finally earned that first-degree black belt, I did not feel as though I had reached the end. I realized I had reached the beginning."

Otwell High School athletes lined up in front of a brick wall, 1974, with Greg Dillon among them.
Senior year, 1974. Greg Dillon, the smallest guy in the group, competed in hurdles and track events.

Five feet six

The smallest man in the room

He was never the biggest kid. He grew to about five feet six inches, fast and wiry, and he learned early that if he could not rely on size, he could rely on speed, preparation, and determination. He ran the hurdles, pole vaulted, played basketball and baseball, and ran cross-country for Otwell High School, graduating in 1974 with the school's final varsity basketball team.

Being the smaller person meant people sometimes underestimated him. He could not control his height. He could control his effort, whether he trained, whether he listened to people who knew more than he did, and how prepared he was when the opportunity came.

"Being small was a fact. It did not have to become a limitation."

Greg Dillon in a hard hat, arms crossed, during a night shift in the utility industry.
Greg working the night shift at "the Rock" during his years in the utility industry.

Service

A life of service

Away from the dojo, Greg spent his career in the utility industry, where he served as a medical first responder and trained in high-angle and confined-space rescue. The work demanded awareness, readiness, and the ability to recognize when something was not right.

That work sharpened the awareness that became the heart of his philosophy. Observation, he came to understand, is not simply looking around. It is paying enough attention to recognize what is actually happening before it becomes obvious to everybody else.

"Confidence without discipline can become carelessness. Confidence without observation can become arrogance. Confidence without listening can prevent learning."

Greg Dillon standing beside his Aunt Vivian in 2025.
Greg and Aunt Vivian, 2025, nearly seven decades after their first photo together.

Faith and family

The greatest fight

Greg is a man of faith and a devoted husband, father, grandfather, and great-grandfather. Prayer has become more meaningful to him as he has gotten older, and he believes there is listening involved in it too.

He and his wife Jana walked with their son Nate, whom Greg proudly calls his bonus son, through years of illness to a life-changing transplant, a journey Greg calls the greatest fight of his life. It taught him that some battles cannot be won with strength at all.

"You cannot punch grief. You cannot kick illness."

Greg Dillon, author of L.O.V.E., smiling at sunset.

Seventy years

The birth of L.O.V.E.

Looking back at seventy, Greg realized that the four words he now teaches, Listen, Observe, Value, and Encourage, did not appear suddenly as an idea for a presentation. They had been unfolding around him since childhood.

He is quick to say the book is not a declaration that he has perfected them. The four words are practices, requiring repetition just like a stance or a technique. L.O.V.E. is his invitation to readers to discover what they are standing on.

"Nobody builds a meaningful life entirely alone."

A life in moments

The timeline

  1. 1950s

    Otwell, Indiana

    Childhood in Otwell, Indiana, on his grandparents' farm with its old wooden barn under a metal roof.

  2. Early 1970s

    The book fair

    Finds a karate book at a school book fair. Curiosity turns into a search.

  3. Age 15

    The first class

    First formal karate class at a YMCA twenty miles from home, under Master Tanaka.

  4. 1974

    Graduation and college

    Graduates from Otwell High School and begins studying vocational technology at Oakland City College, where he meets Earl Heacock and Randy Beard.

  5. 1977

    Competition

    Competes in tournaments in Cincinnati, Ohio, and Nashville, Tennessee.

  6. 1980

    First-degree black belt

    Earns his first-degree black belt from Master Gene Gross, and receives a first place trophy from World Champion Herb Johnson in Indianapolis.

  7. Later years

    New layers

    Studies with Grandmaster George Dillman and travels internationally for seminars. Teaches generations of students.

  8. Career

    Service

    Serves in the utility industry as a medical first responder, trained in high-angle and confined-space rescue.

  9. Today

    Tenth-degree black belt

    Tenth-degree black belt with fifty-five years in martial arts, author of L.O.V.E.

Nobody builds a meaningful life entirely alone

The people who shaped him

Hover or tap a card to see what each of them taught him.

From the family albums

Photographs

Photographs from the manuscript of L.O.V.E. Select any photo to see it larger.

Speaking and seminars

Bring Greg to your school, dojo, church, or organization.

Talks on the L.O.V.E. principle, perseverance, and character, drawn from fifty-five years of teaching. For young people who have been told they are too small, and for the adults who shape them.

Invite Greg to Speak