(Willy Johannes Cristoffel) was born into privilege in 1921 in Loemadjang Village on the island of Java.
The son of prominent Dutch and Indonesian parents, Willy was raised on a large plantation with a
household of servants and plantation workers. His father ran the plantation and owned a lucrative
export business. At about ten years old he began his Martial Arts training. At the age of seventeen Willy
had reached the ninth rank of expertise and was ready to advance to the tenth rank (or master) when he
decided to join the Royal Dutch Army. Captured by the Japanese during WWII, Willy spent four and a
half years in POW camps throughout Asia being used as slave labor. After the war he returned to
Indonesia as a career soldier where he met his wife, another Dutch colonist, Gerri. Their home was
attacked by Indonesian rebels forcing them to flee Indonesia in a harrowing escape with their two sons,
Wim and Roy and an infant daughter Jane. With only the clothes on their backs they were escorted to
the safety of a waiting ship bound for their homeland, Holland. In 1956 Willy jumped at the opportunity
for he and his family to emigrate to the United States. Sponsored by a Methodist church in Rochester,
Pennsylvania, he, and his family began to build a life in Beaver County PA. He worked at Westinghouse
Corporation in the town of Beaver PA and began instructing self-defense to a few local police officers
and firefighters, pro bono, in the basement of a church. As interest grew one of his students suggested
he begin to advertise, start a school, and get the students to pay for the training. I had the distinct honor
to have Goeroe Willy Wetzel as my mentor, teacher, and friend. The school progressed from being a
small group of students in a church basement with only Willy and his sons as instructors to a fully
operational school at the National Guard Armory in New Brighton, PA and later in Beaver Falls PA. He
worked at Westinghouse full time to support his family and never charged much for lessons. Students
paid modest dues by the month and were never held to contracts. His art was not a sport or a primary
means of income, but a total combat art. Willy quickly gained the respect of the community at large and
became recognized as an exceedingly and highly skilled teacher and master of Poekoelan.