Grand Island Housewife Is Nationally Ranked Fencer - Wednesday, Nov. 9, 1966 issue of the Island Dispatch
   A rather unusual hobby has turned one Grand Island housewife into an expert in her field. Mrs. Walter H. Lare of 1767 Whitehaven Road is considered a top fencer, nationally.
   Mrs. Lare has been nationally ranked 10th on two occasions in fencing and is currently ranked 11th in the country. She is a Classified “A” fencer.
   She began fencing in Rochester Institute of Technology from which she received a degree in photographic illustration. Her team was intercollegiate champions in 1955 and 1957, ranking second in 1956. Mrs. Lare was undefeated in her junior and senior years and was named to the Olympic Squad in 1956 and again in 1964. She has trained with George Santelli, five-time Olympic coach, and Arthur Fregosi and Michael Alaux, also Olympic coaches.
   A member of the New York Fencers Club, Mrs. Lare is treasurer of the Intercollegiate Women’s Fencing Association. Some of her accomplishments include winning the New Jersey State Championship in 1958, the Golden Foil (Montreal) in 1962, the Long Island Championship in 1963, and this year she placed first in the Buffalo Open, Cointe Memorial at Cornell, the Rochester Fencers Club Invitational, and most recently, the women’s foil at the Niagara Frontier Invitational, held in the Jewish Center, Buffalo.
   Editor's Note: Barbi Lare, as she has been known for many years, has served as Grand Island's unofficial photographer for nearly 40 years.