David Micahnik, C’59, a standout fencer as a Penn student and later Penn’s head fencing coach, died on January 4. He was 86.

Mr. Micahnik graduated from Penn’s College of Arts & Sciences in 1959. While an undergraduate at Penn, under the tutelage of legendary fencing master Maestro Lajos Csiszar, he earned All-Ivy accolades in fencing his senior year and competed in the Eastern final in 1958 and 1959. One year after graduating, Mr. Micahnik competed in the first of his three Olympic Games, held in Rome in 1960. He also competed in the 1964 Tokyo Games and the 1968 Mexico City Games. Accomplished in all three fencing weapons—épée, foil and saber—Mr. Micahnik’s forte was the épée, and he won the U.S. national title in 1960 and finished in second place in 1964, 1966 and 1968. Mr. Micahnik’s épée team won U.S. championships from 1965-1968, and Mr. Micahnik won individual titles in the World Maccabiah games in 1965 and 1969.

In 1973, Mr. Micahnik returned to his Penn to become the head fencing coach. In a tenure that stretched until 2010, Mr. Micahnik earned 722 wins and guided the Quakers to 20 Ivy League championships—ten each for the men’s and women’s teams—as well as NCAA team titles in 1981 (men) and 1986 (women). He also coached six individual NCAA champions for the men’s team. Mr. Micahnik was a member of the Penn Athletics Hall of Fame’s second induction class in 1998, and was also inducted into the Philadelphia Jewish Sports Hall of Fame in 1997 and the United States Fencing Association Hall of Fame in 2008.

Outside of Penn, Mr. Micahnik coached the U.S. teams at four Under-20 World Championships, five World University Games, two World Championships, the 1985 and 1993 World Maccabiah Games, and the 1986 and 1988 Junior Pan-American Games. He was a certified Maitre D’Armes (fencing master) in all three weapons by the U.S. Fencing Coaches Association and the International Academy of Arms.

Mr. Micahnik is survived by three sons, Bob, Hank (Sarah), and Tzvi (Channie); and four granddaughters, Robin Lynn, Chasya Temima, Atara Emunah, and Geulah Nechama.