Fred Schenck competed in individual épée for the US at the 1912 Stockholm Olympics. He was from Pennsylvania, but graduated from Harvard in 1909 with a cum laude degree in the history and literature of the Middle Ages. Schenck then studied at Oxford University, earning a Litt.B. degree in 1912. He returned to Harvard, earning a masters’ degree in 1914 and a Ph.D. in 1918. Schenck then became a member of the Harvard faculty, as an instructor in the Division of History, Government and Economics. While on staff he was chairman of the Committee on Degrees with Distinction in History and Literature, and secretary of the Committee on the use of English.