Ferenc Marki, a fencing master and former fencing coach at San Francisco State University, City College of San Francisco, Mills College, and Pannonia Athletic Club who was internationally known for training skilled fencers at the Olympic and Intercollegiate levels, passed away on Memorial Day, May 26, 2008 in Boulder, Colorado. He was 95 years old.
He was born on November 7, 1912 to Forenc Marki and Etelka Pinter in Szeged, in southern Hungary. As a youth, he trained intensively and excelled quickly at learning the art of fencing foil, epee, and saber at the prestigious Toldi Miklos Royal Hungarian Sports Institute.
In 1935, he achieved the rank of fencing master or “maestro” when he received the diploma of of Maître d'Armes and Fencing Instructor. He then taught fencing at the Hungarian Military Academy and began to raise a family.
In 1956, Hungarians began challenging their Communist Russian controlled government. When state police massacred protesting students, members of the Hungarian military came to their defense and Russia sent in tanks and troops to seize military control of Hungary and begin purging the opposition. Many Hungarians immediately rushed to leave the country. Maestro Marki and his family fled across the border in the night, living first in refugee camps in neighboring Yugoslavia. Maestro Marki continued to teach fencing, at first in Turino, Italy, and then in Sao Paulo, Brazil.
Maestro Marki remained in close contact with other Hungarian expatriate fencing masters and fencers, including Olympic Sabre Champions George Piller (a famous fencing master and three time Olympic sabre champion in the 1930s who was teaching at Pannonia Athletic Club in San Francisco and UC Berkeley), and Daniel Magay (Sabre 1957, 1958, 1961 National Champion; Gold Medal 1956 Olympics).
After Maestro George Piller passed away in 1960, Daniel Magay sent to Brazil for Ferenc Marki to take his place as Maestro of the Pannonia Athletic Club. Maestro Marki soon became fencing master at Mills College, City College of San Francisco, and San Francisco State University.
At Pannonia Athletic Club, Maestro Marki continued to train many skilled fencers, including Olympic fencers and US Champions Daniel Magay and Harriet King, and his Pannonia Athletic Club teams won Pacific Coast Championships in 1964, 1965, 1966, 1967, 1968, and 1979.
As a result of Maestro Marki’s insistence on the highest standards of excellence and self discipline in teaching his fencing students, the individuals and teams he coached at City College of San Francisco and San Francisco State University rose to the top of the Northern California Intercollegiate Fencing Association and Western Intercollegiate Fencing Conferences, yielding many first place trophies and medals by both teams and individuals, even besting the teams of his Hungarian Maestro colleagues Julius Palffy-Alpar at the University of California Berkeley and Nick Toth of the Air Force Academy.
Teams and individuals coached by Maestro Marki won and medaled in many intercollegiate championships, including gold medal finishes in Northern California competitions in 1970, 1971, 1972, and 1973, and took first place in the Western Intercollegiate Conference in 1971 and 1973.
Maestro Ferenc Marki is survived by his family, including two sons, daughter, and grandchildren, and by many loyal fencing students who will never forget his intensity, courage, integrity, and who will be forever indebted to him for the broader value of the lessons he taught on the fencing strip.
-by Carl Sundholm
San Francisco State University
Varsity Fencing Team 1969-1973
NOTE: Maestro's daughter Juli Marki in Colorado will be setting up a memorial gathering for Maestro in SF; date, time, and location to be determined and that she will let us know of the details soon. So stay tuned. - June 3, 2008
Additional information from Carl:
" I have updated the Maestro Marki Memorium Website with interesting information provided courtesy of Mr. Daniel Magay and Tom Marki.
Here's the link: http://www.sundholm.net/MemoriumMaestroFerencMarki.html
The update includes new information as to who was Maestro's Maestro.
It was Maestro Laszlo Borsody who taught at the Toldi Miklos Royal Hungarian Sports Institute and who is acknowledged in Hungary as the creator of the modern Hungarian style of sabre fencing.
Maestro Borsody was the teacher of most the great Hungarian maestros, including those who came to the western United States, namely Maestros George (Jekelfalussy) Piller, Julius Palffy-Alpar, Nicholas Toth, and of course Ferenc Marki. The fencers Maestro Borsody taught achieved numerous gold medals in the Olympics and World Championships. Take a look at this Wikipedia article on Borsody's student Pál Kovács:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pal_Kovacs
Maestro Borsody additionally was the creator of the fleche.'
So maybe you all didn't realize all this at the time, but it is indeed a great tradition that we were fortunate enough to have Maestro Marki build upon and pass on to us.You should know that Maestro Ferenc Marki is part of officially published written fencing history.
In Richard Cohen's encylopaedic book "By the Sword: A History of Gladiators, Musketeers, Samurai, Swashbucklers, and Olympic Champions" (New York: The Modern Library, 2002: 402-403) in Chapter 17 entitled "Exodus" describing how the great fencing masters and fencers fled Hungary, Maestro Marki is expressly listed as being one of "the best coaches from the Toldi Miklos Institute," with others in that list including Maestros Georgy Piller, Csaba Elthes, Toth, and Palffy-Alpar."
Best wishes,
Carl SundholmCarl has added info to the following:
Updated information, photos, and copies of articles to the Memoriam to Maestro Ferenc Marki website at http://www.sundholm.net/MemoriumMaestroFerencMarki.html, have updated the Wikipedia article on Ferenc Marki (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ferenc_Marki), and have written new link Wikipedia articles on Laszlo Borsody (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/L%C3%A1szl%C3%B3_Borsody), György Piller (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gy%C3%B6rgy_Piller), and Daniel Magay (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Daniel_Magay).For more photos of Maestro Marki, click here.
