Laurin Herr, 6th Dan
Laurin began his Aikido training in 1971 as a student at Cornell University. Inspired by his first experience on the mat, he studied Japanese intensively, moved to Tokyo, and entered Aikido Hombu Dojo as an unranked white belt, earning his shodan there in 1976. He subsequently spent formative years affiliated with the Kumano Juku Dojo in Japan, training under Michio Hikitsuchi, Motomichi Anno, Motokazu Yanase, and Yasushi Tojima. Returning from Japan, he continued his practice with Terry Dobson and Ken Nisson at the Bond Street Dojo. After living in New York City, then Tokyo, then New York again, Laurin settled in the San Francisco Bay Area. He met Robert Nadeau in 1999 and has been training with him ever since. Herr was a senior instructor at City Aikido of San Francisco and is currently a senior instructor at Aikido of Mountain View. Off the mat, he is president of Pacific Interface Inc., an international consulting company based in Oakland, California.