The following tribute is dedicated to Yves Auriol written by Robert & Suzanne Marx:
Early in Yves Auriol’s athletic career he had a choice between rugby or fencing. He went the professional rugby route. Thus, explaining the bowed legs and the crooked nose. Rugby isn’t a sport for the meek. After finishing his professional career on the pitch, he chose the more civilized sport, fencing. Yves spent three years at France’s Institut National du Sport earning his fencing master’s degree in 1968.
Leon sponsored his brother’s immigration from France in 1971. Leon was traveling the Pacific Northwest from Vancouver BC to Portland Oregon giving fencing lessons. Leon began bringing Yves with him. Having two fencing masters in Seattle and not one in Portland didn’t sit right with the locals. A small group of fencers in Portland set out to bring one of them here. An offer was made and accepted, but with one caveat. We had to secure a permanent fencing facility. Our own dedicated building designed to train fencers. Our current location (NWFC) is the latest permutation of that caveat and it exemplifies the excellence Yves brought to fencing in our area.
Yves began his coaching in Portland in 1972. A new fencing school, Salle Auriol Fencing Club, Inc. (Salle Auriol) was formed in 1973. Under Yves’ tutelage, the fencers began training more vigorously and to compete more. Yves was the right master for the job, running not only the athletes ragged with a strict technical training regimen, but parents also had to participate in conditioning classes as well. Yves’ mastery of the sport and his ability to transfer that to his students was unparalleled. When you competed, he fenced every touch with you. His stomach would turn so much that Maalox was a part of every team meal.
Yves’ tenure as our coach ended in 1985 when he accepted a position at Notre Dame University. During his time in Portland, he produced national champions, world team members, and 20% of the 1984 Olympic fencing team. Not bad for a one-man show in a part of the US that few expected to have any notable fencers.
His influence was the impetus that prompted members of the club at the time to incorporate a new entity in 1985. In his honor, the new club adopted the name The Salle Auriol Fencing Club, which later adopted the alias Northwest Fencing Center (NWFC).
For those of us who had the honor of knowing Yves, to train with him, and to share our lives with him, Georgette, who we affectionately call “Jo” and their son Stephane are greatly saddened. We have lost a great friend and teacher.
Robert & Suzanne Marx (two of Yves’ first students)
