I learned bridge my senior year of college which was 44 years ago. But after graduating I had little time to play bridge so only played rubber bridge occasionally for the next 38 years. But after retiring at 60, I reconnected with an old neighbor (Anne Harrington – life master and ACBL certified teacher) who I had played rubber bridge with and she suggested I give duplicate a try. I enjoyed the game but was not ready to play at her level although I learned a lot. We split up but I liked bridge so I started playing rubber bridge with a non-ACBL bridge group and came to realize I learned a lot from Anne. So I started teaching bridge to this group which helped accelerating my learning.  

 

After a year I got connected with another life master and I joined the ACBL and we played duplicate online. But after about 6 months we stopped playing because we were planning a move from Virginia to Oregon to get close to our younger son who lived there. After getting settled in, I made some new friends (Jill and Bob Wolcott) who got me connected to the Medford bridge club. I got assigned a partner (Larry Crain) and we built a good partnership and we started to go to local regional tournaments in 2023. We learned the Schenken Big Club bidding system (I would not recommend this system to anyone) and tailored it with several things we borrowed from Precision. We played in the NAP tournament for the district and I captained a GNT team in the district. 

 

At this time one of the principals at the club (Dennis Kendig) sat us down and asked us if either of us had a goal to be a life master. After a few months of thinking about it I decided to work towards becoming a life master. I play on average probably once a day and have had regular partners online In Rhode Island, New Jersey, Connecticut, Michigan, Texas, Montana as well as several in Oregon. The most notable of these are my online partners from Michigan and Montana. I started playing Janice McHale (Michigan)  in 2023 and after playing together online for 8 months, we decided to travel to a regional tournament in Houston. We both had a goal to try to get all the gold master points we needed to become a life master in 2024. In 2024 we went to regional tournaments in Houston, Vancouver, Denver, King of Prussia, and Lansing. The first picture I included is a picture of us at the Denver regional the day we won the overall in the gold rush. I also attended regionals in 2024 at Helena and Seaside with Andrew Knutson (Montana). At Seaside I had the pleasure of helping Andy become a life master. The second picture is of Andy becoming a life master. Through these regionals in 2024 I was able to win over 65 gold points, successfully accomplishing my goal in 2024. 

 

I have been teaching bridge at our club in Medford but much of my learning has been self taught. The other teacher at our club (Heather Breckenridge) came forward to help me improve my teaching approach and teaching material. Heather recently became a silver life master and is one of the most pleasant people I have ever met. She always has a smile on her face so I have nicknamed her “Smiley”. Additionally I started taking lessons from her. She is a wonderful teacher and helped me dramatically improve my game. She also agreed to go to sectionals with me. We recently attended a sectional in Wilsonville which is where with her help as well as 2 of her other students, I was able to earn enough silver to become an advanced NABC Master. The third picture is of Heather when we came in first in the overall of the mid flight pairs at the sectional. 

 

 

I currently teach beginning bridge for the club, I got certified as a director, and I am a member of the board for the club and currently I am the web master for the club’s website.

 

I want to thank all my wonderful partners and teachers along the way. Without them I would not have the success I have had.