John Allaire is Dead
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John Allaire is Dead
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February 11, 1937
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JOHN ALLAIRE IS DEAD.
John Allaire died last Sunday night at the age of eighty less than 18 months after his retirement from administrative duties in the Amateur Fencers League of America, of which he was honorary vice-president.
Never a titular fencing champion, John Allaire was the first and most vigorous champion of democracy in fencing. Acquainted by personally painful experience with the short-sightedness of those who believed in fencing for the chosen few only, he sponsored the cause of all youngsters who answered to the call of the ancient art, and of those smaller clubs who in the final analysis furnish the life-blood of competitive sport. Himself a representative of the New York Turn Verein during his competitive career, he devoted much time and money to the support of the Saltus Club during its long and honorable existence at the old French Y.M.C.A., while at the same time holding membership in either the Fencers Club or the New York Athletic Club.
No fencer who has ever been active in National Competition will forget John Allaire's long service as Chairman of the Bout Committee. For 25 years he attended every scheduled tournament of the A.F.L.A. whether for "preps" or "seniors", and he devoted as much painstaking care to the conduct of the one as of the other.
Fencing—rather than his business duties in Wall Street—was always the driving interest of John Allaire's life. He made his final public appearance at the first Veterans Tournament last spring, when the "youngsters" in the competition honored him with membership in the highly exclusive "Fifty-Plus" Club, and the A.F.L.A. presented him with a silver tray engraved with the signatures of the four presidents under whom he served.
The American fencing world mourns John Allaire. May his many years of unselfish devotion to the game be an inspiration to those of us who carry on, and may he find, in the world beyond, a worthy opponent for a pleasant bout with his beloved sabre.
