Robert Trias enlisted in the United States Naval Reserve in Phoenix, Arizona during World War II, on September 22, 1942.

Trias was then temporarily attached to a patrol squadron at Section Base Morro Bay in San Luis Obispo County before returning to Treasure Island in September 1943.

It is said that he met Tung Gee Hsiang, a Chinese missionary of Chan (Zen) Buddhism, while on Tulagi.

In late 1945, shortly before Trias left the Navy in January of the following year, he began teaching martial arts in his backyard.

He later opened the first public karate school operated by a Caucasian in the United States mainland in Phoenix, Arizona, in 1946.

Including a number of infections and stage 2 cancer complications exaggerated by an unspecified preexisting condition on July 11, 1989, leaving multiple branches of the Shuri ryu system.

Most of the highest ranks and Chief Instructors followed Robert Bowles in the formation of the International Shuri-ryu Association