Miguel de Capriles (November 30, 1906 – May 24, 1981) was a Mexican-born American fencer, a President of the FIE, a former dean of the New York University School of Law and one of the world's leading authorities on fencing.

Biography

Dr. de Capriles was a member of every United States Olympic and international fencing team from 1932 to 1951 and president of the World Fencing Federation. He won a bronze medal in the team

épée The ( or , ), sometimes spelled epee in English, is the largest and heaviest of the three weapons used in the sport of fencing. The modern derives from the 19th-century , a weapon which itself derives from the French small sword. This contains ...

event at the

1932 Summer Olympics The 1932 Summer Olympics (officially the Games of the X Olympiad and also known as Los Angeles 1932) were an international multi-sport event held from July 30 to August 14, 1932 in Los Angeles, California, United States. The Games were held duri ...

and a bronze in the team

sabre A sabre ( French: �sabʁ or saber in American English) is a type of backsword with a curved blade associated with the light cavalry of the early modern and Napoleonic periods. Originally associated with Central European cavalry such as th ...

at the

1948 Summer Olympics The 1948 Summer Olympics (officially the Games of the XIV Olympiad and also known as London 1948) were an international multi-sport event held from 29 July to 14 August 1948 in London, England, United Kingdom. Following a twelve-year hiatus ca ...

. He won the national three-weapon championship five times and the national open épée championship four times, and was a member of the Olympic épée team that placed third in Los Angeles in 1932 and third in London in 1948 — both the best showing of an American fencing team in the Olympics at the time. He was also an attorney with a distinguished career as a professor of law, writing dozens of articles on corporate law. He served as dean and later vice president and general counsel of New York University. After leaving N.Y.U. in 1974, he became a professor of law at the

University of California, Hastings College of the Law The University of California, Hastings College of the Law (UC Hastings) is a Public university, public Law school in the United States, law school in San Francisco, California. Founded in 1878 by Serranus Clinton Hastings, UC Hastings was the ...

in San Francisco, where he taught classes relating to business law, such as accounting for lawyers and corporations. Dr. de Capriles was born in Mexico and came to the United States at the age of 13, with no knowledge of English or fencing. He attended the Irving School in Tarrytown, and then N.Y.U., from which he graduated cum laude in 1927. He joined the school's staff in 1929 and earned a master's degree in 1932, followed by a Doctorate in Jurisprudence in 1935. After serving in World War II as a special assistant in the Justice Department, he returned to N.Y.U. as an associate law professor. In 1947, he became the founding director of the university's Inter-American Law Institute. The following year he was named associate dean of the Law School and became dean in 1964. In 1967, he was appointed vice president and general counsel of the university, and during campus disorders in 1969, he went to court to obtain a permanent injunction forbidding violence on its grounds by radical groups. The next year, N.Y.U. won a lawsuit in which a student sought a tuition refund for 19 days of classes canceled during campus uprising in response to the deployment of United States forces in Cambodia. He was married to the former Dorothy Hafner and had a son, Thomas, as well as a daughter, Christina Munz.

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* {{DEFAULTSORT:Capriles, Miguel 1906 births 1981 deaths American male épée fencers American sportspeople of Mexican descent Mexican emigrants to the United States Fencers at the 1932 Summer Olympics Fencers at the 1936 Summer Olympics Fencers at the 1948 Summer Olympics Olympic bronze medalists for the United States in fencing Fencers from Mexico City Medalists at the 1932 Summer Olympics Medalists at the 1948 Summer Olympics Pan American Games medalists in fencing Pan American Games gold medalists for the United States Pan American Games silver medalists for the United States Fencers at the 1951 Pan American Games American male sabre fencers