He was one of only a small number of white students under Gōgen Yamaguchi, an early Japanese GōJū Ryū Sensei, Practitioner, and Instructor as well as the head of the style's organization, The GoJu Kai.
He lived a short while in Altoona, Pennsylvania, then was raised and educated in Union City, New Jersey, where as a boy he shined shoes and delivered the local newspaper, The Hudson Dispatch.
[4][5] In 1959, Urban moved to America and introduced GōJu Ryū to the east coast of U.S.[6][7] He opened his first GōJu Ryū DoJo on 14th Street and Summit Avenue in Union City, N.J.[5] The following year he shared a school in Manhattan which was owned and operated by the Lephofker brothers before moving his classes to 20 E. 17th street in NYC.
[8] In 1966, Urban traveled back to Japan to seek Yamaguchi's consent to create an official GoJu Ryu club in America and planned to remain for several years hoping to obtain higher rank.
Some sources maintain that, upon refusing Urban's request, Yamaguchi quoted Bushi-do: "no white man can achieve nirvana."
[citation needed] Urban continued to work under Richard Kim and the BuTokuKai but later went on to form his own U.S.A. GoJu Association (U.S.A.G.A) which is still in operation.