July 9, 1936 Nicholas Raymond Cerio was born in Boston, Massachusetts. He would grow up to become Professor Nick Cerio, world-renowned martial artist and founder of Nick Cerio's Kenpo. Before young Nick was a teenager his family moved to Providence, Rhode Island (Federal Hill district). During this time Providence was quite the "rough and tumble" locale, and the boy from Boston had his share of fights. As a teenager Professor Cerio took up boxing at the Federal Hill House. Boxing was a way for him to channel and use his youthful aggression other than fighting in the streets. It introduced him to the more intellectual and technical side of combat, like theories of angles and continuous flow of motion. Professor Cerio loved boxing and when he joined the United States Air Force in the mid 1950's he was quite successful in the lightweight division.

In 1958, after an Honorable Discharge, Professor Cerio began training in Judo under George McCabe at the YMCA back in Providence, Rhode Island. After three years of study Professor Cerio decided to seek out an art with stronger combat emphasis, and in 1961 he began studying Tae Kwon Do under Ted Olson.

About a year later, in 1962 Professor Cerio was introduced to Sensei George Pesare and the art of Karazenpo Go Shinjutsu (Kenpo). Sensei Pesare showed the New England states the art of Kenpo two years prior to taking Professor Cerio as a student. Like his earlier years in boxing Professor Cerio totally immersed himself in this new art. Professor Cerio was a constant on the tournament circuit competing at the black belt level, even though he was still a brown belt. (Right Photo: George Pesare's first class of Brown Belts. Seated in the middle is Roger Carpenter, on the left is young Nick Cerio.) Through these tournaments Professor Cerio built his network of connections some of who would later become instructors to him. In 1966 Sensei Pesare awarded Professor Cerio his Shodan (1st degree of black belt) in Kenpo. This was also the year that Professor Cerio opened his first school and called it Cerio's Academy of Martial Arts. The acronym of CAMA was used by Professor Cerio on his license plates throughout his life.

In 1966 Professor Cerio moved on from Sensei Pesare to continue his martial arts journey. During his many tournament competitions Professor Cerio met a referee and Kenpo master named Edmund Parker, the "father of American Kenpo." Their relationship began with informal conversations on Kenpo history, and each showing the other different techniques they learned and developed. It was through these conversations that Professor Cerio learned of Professor William Kwai Sun Chow of Hawaii. Upon Professor Cerio's request Master Parker wrote a letter of introduction for him to meet Professor Chow. Depending on who is telling the story, it is said that Professor Cerio first studied with William Chun, Professor Chow's top student at the time, before he was allowed to learn from Professor Chow. This was the traditional manner in which a student seeking a teacher. According to information research, Professor Cerio was awarded a Shodan from both Professor Chow and Master Chun. According to some information the certificate from Professor Chow is dated August 1966, and the one from Master Chun is dated August 1967. Conflicting research has been found stating this later certificate was actually presented by Professor Chow; either way a Shodan from Professor Chow was given to Professor Cerio. The story continues that Professor Cerio was granted the privilege of studying with Professor Chow permanently in 1967.

Over the next four years Professor Cerio visited Professor Chow several times in Hawaii. Being a very traditional instructor Professor Chow's training methods were often times quite trying. Professor Cerio told stories of horse stance training with full force punches up to 500 times or more, the "more" coming from deviations from a proper low horse stance. Seeing Professor Cerio's skill and potential, Professor Chow told him that he should develop his own system of Kenpo for mainland America. Shortly after that in December of 1971 Professor Chow awarded Professor Cerio his Godan (5th degree black belt). This was, unfortunately, to be Professor Cerio's final Hawaii training session with Professor Chow.

During the years Professor Cerio spent traveling to Hawaii for training he also trained on the mainland with others. These instructors were also people he met through the tournament circuit. One of these men was James Benko who was a Hakkoryu Jiujutsu practitioner. Professor Cerio received a brown belt through Mr. Benko and would continue on later to earn his Shodan through Professor Larry Garron. Another tournament contact was Master Ernie Lieb, a Chung Do Kwan practitioner, who actually fought with Professor Cerio in a tournament. The story has it that Master Lieb was awarded the victory in the fight, and afterwards approached Professor Cerio to congratulate him, as any good sportsman and respectful martial artist would. He then showed Professor Cerio his bruised ribs while commenting, "We know who won this fight". Moved by Master Lieb's skill in the ring and humility on the sidelines Professor Cerio asked to be and was accepted as a student of Master Lieb. It was through Master Lieb that he met yet another instructor, Master Tadashi Yamashita, a Shorin Ryu practitioner.