Charlie Selberg
Charles Selberg, Charlie to most, was a Fargo, ND native who discovered fencing at San Francisco State where he received his BA and MA with studio art being his primary focus. His first teacher was the long-time coach at SFSU, Erich Funke-d’Egnuff. He taught fencing for John McDougall at his San Francisco School of Fencing for a brief period, and concurrently learned from both Jack Nottingham and George Piller. In the early 1960s he returned to Fargo and opened the Selberg Fencing Academy where he had a very successful run with numerous students winning local and regional competitions.
READ MORE...Following his student and future wife Julie back to San Francisco, he taught briefly at Halberstadt Fencers Club after the death of Hans Halberstadt but left after being hired at the only-a-year-old University of California Santa Cruz. At Santa Cruz he built a reputation for being “the class” you had to take. His teaching skill and philosophical approach gained massive appeal and he was an extremely popular figure on campus.
In 1970, he, along with Michael D’Asaro, Ed Richards and others, was selected to compete at the Fencing Masters World Championships in London, where Selberg’s foil team took home the Gold medal. Retiring to the hills south of Ashland, OR in the early 1980s, his collection of fencing photos and memorabilia became the foundational collection for the Archive. His efforts in collecting and preserving fencing history alongside longtime friend and colleague John McDougall was hugely important for the impetus for the creation of the West Coast Fencing Archive.
Articles
My Forever Summer
You don’t forget your first team, or your first teammates. The fortuitous circumstances surrounding my introduction to fencing couldn’t be more memorable; a time filled with remarkable personalities.
Party Like Hans Halberstadt
Of the 13 million Germans mobilized for the First World War, over half were killed, wounded or taken prisoner. Hans Halberstadt and other survivors jumped into the Roaring Twenties with gusto.
Say Goodbye, Say Hello
I drove from my Bay Area home last week to attend the memorial service for much-loved fencing master Delmar Calvert.
Another Fortuitous Occurance
It’s impossible to know why these things happen. They can’t be planned for or expected yet I’ve been experiencing more than my share of these types of events since starting this archive and I couldn’t be happier about it. This is simply the latest.
Alpar Comes to San Francisco
Some months ago, I paid a visit to UC Berkeley’s Bancroft Library to look at a collection of scrapbooks donated to the library upon the passing of long-time Cal fencing master Julius Palffy-Alpar. Harold Hayes of the Pacific Fencing Club had told me of their existence and agreed to meet me there to get a look at the books.
Historical Documents in the Digital Age
Fear. It’s a motivator for me. Not the average, everyday kind of fear, nor an amorphous fear of zombies or clowns. Rather, the fear of loss. A very specific kind of loss.
Hall of Famer: Erich Funke d’Egnuff
Regular readers will be familiar with the many tales told herein of Charles Selberg, himself a graduate of SF State (BA ’57, MA ’60). Selberg had his fencing beginnings at SF State under the tutelage of Erich Funke.
The San Jose Summer Workshops
Sometime prior to the summer of 1977, Michael D’Asaro and Charles Selberg devised a plan to create a summer workshop for fencers. Both were instructors at Universities, San Jose State and UC Santa Cruz, respectively
More Selberg Instructional Series!
Rather than making things suspenseful, as in, “How will I ever learn how to fence properly if the West Coast Fencing Archive doesn’t continue to post more of the Selberg Instructional Series?!” sort of suspense, I’ve opted for stringing the next three installments...
Photo Gallery
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