Sunday Sit-down: Syd Fadner

Sunday

Dec 29, 2013 at 6:00 AMDec 29, 2013 at 6:43 AM

By Amanda Roberge CORRESPONDENT

When Syd Fadner graduated from the University of Wisconsin-Madison in 1979, she didn't have a clear picture of what she was doing with her life. In a couple of chance and spontaneous moves, she found herself in the Boston area signing up for a fencing class with a friend. The rest, as they say, is history.

Now more than 30 years later, she owns her own gym and training center, Worcester Fencing Club, and has coached the Boston College men's and women's varsity fencing teams since 1991. But more importantly, she has had a long and dedicated career as a mentor in the age-old martial art to hundreds of people, using her quietthe seventeenth-century nun, Winefrid Thimelby (1618-90), and her family members, the Astons and Thimelbys, many of whom were poets and writers. These family letters had been studied before I started my work, but there was (and still is) plenty to be done. For one thing, the letters need to be edited again.