PHILADELPHIA – Penn Athletics was saddened to learn of the passing of Dave Micahnik C'59 on Saturday, Jan. 4. A member of the Penn Athletics Hall of Fame's second induction class in 1998, Micahnik was a standout fencer for the Red and Blue and later coached the fencing teams at his alma mater for 35 years.
 
Under the tutelage of another Penn Athletics Hall of Fame member, Maestro Lajos Csiszar, Micahnik earned All-Ivy accolades in epee his senior year and competed in the Eastern final in both 1958 and 1959.
 
One year after graduation, Micahnik competed in the first of his three Olympic Games, heading to Rome in 1960. He also competed in the 1964 Tokyo Games and the 1968 Mexico City Games. Accomplished in all three weapons—epee, foil and saber—Micahnik's forte was the epee, and he won the U.S. national title in 1960 with second-place finishes in 1964, 1966 and 1968. Micahnik's epee team won U.S. championships from 1965-68.
 
Competing in the World Maccabiah games in 1965, Micahnik won the individual epee title and took second in the foil, with the epee and foil teams both earning gold medals. At the same competition in 1969, Micahnik again won the individual epee title, as did the epee team.
 
As the head coach of Penn's fencing programs from 1974-2009, Micahnik earned 722 wins and guided the Quakers to 20 Ivy League championships—10 on the men's side, 10 on the women's side—as well as NCAA team titles in 1981 (men) and 1986 (women). He also coached six individual NCAA champions on the men's side, two each in all three weapons.
 
Micahnik also had extensive experience coaching at the international level, leading 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.
 
In addition to the Penn Athletics Hall of Fame, among many other honors Micahnik was an inductee into the inaugural class of the Philadelphia Jewish Sports Hall of Fame in 1997 and the United States Fencing Association Hall of Fame in 2008.
 
David was preceded in death by his beloved wife, Phyllis, in 2019, and his son Aaron in 2007. He is survived by his three sons, Bob, Hank (Sarah), and Tzvi (Channie), and his four granddaughters: Robin Lynn, Chasya Temima, Atara Emunah, and Geulah Nechama.
 
A funeral service for Micahnik will take place on Wednesday, Jan. 8 at 11 a.m. at Platt Memorial Chapel in Cherry Hill, N.J. Interment will follow at Locustwood Memorial Park.