Two great masters, Lajos Csiszar (l)and Giorgio Santelli (r)
Santelli - 1980's
Maestro Santelli passed away on Oct. 8, 1985.
Two great masters, Lajos Csiszar (l)and Giorgio Santelli (r)
When Maestro Santelli passed away, New York Times writer Robert
Handman writes an article about an age
of swashbuckling passing away with him. Click on photo to see article larger.
Linda Vollkomer - Head Fencing coach and associate Professor of the Stevens Institute in New Jersey, involved in the fencing program there since 1974. Inducted into the sports hall of fame in New Jersey City University and Hudson County. Her impressive record can be found at: http://www.stevensducks.com/sports/wfencing/bio.asp?PLAYER_ID=1861 Prof. Vollkomer has promised to send us her photos of Giorgio after summer of 2004. Once we have them we will post them online.
"I first met Giorgio in early 1980. He was old then (like forgetting where he put his keys, using a cane, normal things like that) except if it pertained to fencing. If it was about fencing he didn't forget a thing, even to exactly what he taught me a week ago on Tuesday. When I asked him how he could remember that he said "fencing is my life". Simple. I had been taking lessons from Denise O'Conner at Salle Santelli, when one day Giorgio came over and said "from now on you will train with me". He became like a grandfather to me, and I became friends with his daughter Andrea, and got to know other members of his family. I qualified for the 1984 Olympic tryouts and Giorgio made it his personal mission to train and get me ready, and not once did he ever charge me a dime for lessons. I was so in awe of him, that he kept telling me that I just had to get over it. We went up in Nantucket in the summer. Eventually I would stay with him and his daughter Andrea, every summer and when Andy wasn't there I began taking care of him, cooking his meals and making sure he was ok. He would tell me how to cook his chicken paprikash - very exactly, watching my every move then tease me afterwards asking me why I would make him such terrible tasting food, playing scrabble and cheating horribly by making up foreign words - what a blast we had, he was so much fun. We would have lessons 2-3 times a day. Giorgio was very old school in many ways, for ex. he didn't believe in warming up with all the stretching that we do now. I would have to get up very early in the morning, 6.a.m while he was still asleep and sneak out of the house to go for a run and warm up completely. Then I would sneak back into bed just before 8.am, when he would arrive at my door and knock on it with his cane saying "wake up Linda, time for lesson". I'm sure he knew what I had been doing, but he never said a word about it. He was so charming, that everyone who met him just fell for him. I had arranged for Giorgio to do a small exhibition with Steve Kaplan and myself. Many people didn't really know who he was, but his personal warmth and charm was so strong that he just captured everyone. (Linda has promised to send us the tape. Once we have it, it is our intention to post it online for viewing). He was so tough in the training, I was told that many women could not endure it, but I had no problem and neither did Denise. I always felt really bad that Giorgio broke his hip while training me. We were doing a move and he had to move backwards quickly. Well he fell backwards and his hip broke. He told me "I didn't expect you to move so fast, do you realize that is the fastest you have ever moved?", so I felt better in one way but terribly guilty about his hip. I was so relieved that he got well so quickly and came back. He was able to continue training me, and then one day this kid started coming around up in Nantucket. He saw Giorgio training me and was fascinated, asking questions, constantly following us around and asking more questions. Giorgio took him in and gave him a few lessons, then started training him more seriously. That kid turned out to be Justin Tausig.
Justin Tausing - U.S. champion epeeist who trained with Santelli from 1983 - 1985. Mr. Tausig is a world class and ranked competitive fencer, on the US National team and World Championship teams. March 2003 he is ranked #62 in the world and is the 3rd highest ranked Sr. Men's epeeist from the U.S.A. Mr. Tausig is believed to be Maestro Santelli's last student. More about Justin at www.olympicsword.com
" . . . he was different. The next two years changed my life. He never had a son who fenced competitively and in his day fencing was passed on from father to son. He took me into his family and treated me as a son. He taught me not only about fencing but about life. If I hadn't met him I can't imagine what I'd be today. When I was 15 he died. To this day I am proud that I was his last student . . ." (From New York Times article Sept. 27, 1998).
Bill Hassay Jr., former "main street violinist on nantucket". - I know nothing about fencing...but I did have the opportunity a couple of times to play scrabble with Mr Santelli at his home (I assume it was his home) in Nantucket during the summer of 1982. I had a girlfriend at the time who was Rosilind (Roz) Amendola, who was friends with Andy... and I was invited to come over in the afternoon to her (Andy's) house ...and play scrabble with her dad Giorgio. I went a couple of times..and was also once invited to dinner...(Andy had a pet rabbit that was was the subject ot a great rabbit hunt thru the house one afternoon I was there as it had gotten loose...) The drink of the day was Disaronno....Giorgio "turned me on" to that adult beveridge, and whenever I have a sip...I think of him. I didn't even know that he was famous...till after the first scrabble game... he was very reticent to talk about fencing at all....he just enjoyed scrabble...and was quite good at it! They were very nice folks, I had a great time in their company.
