Albert Axelrod, 83; Champion Fencer, on 5 U.S. Olympic Teams

Albert Axelrod, 83, a champion fencer who was a member of five consecutive U.S. Olympic fencing teams in the foil, the lightest of competition swords, died Feb. 24 of a heart attack at an assisted living facility in New York City.

Axelrod, who was the best in the United States in the foil in 1955, 1958, 1960 and 1970, was the only men’s foil fencer in the country to reach the world championship finals. He won 15 U.S. National Gold Medals, as well as a bronze medal in the 1960 Rome Olympics.

Born in the Bronx, New York, to Russian-Jewish immigrants, Axelrod was steered to fencing by his mother because of a heart murmur that made other sports more dangerous for him. He learned fencing at Stuyvesant High School and won amateur titles after high school. After serving in the Navy during World War II, he joined the fencing team at City College of New York.

He eventually made his living as an electrical engineer with Grumman Corp.