UNIT 154 ANNUAL MEETING NOTICE

The Annual Membership Meeting will be held during South Bend Summer Sectional on:

 Sunday, August 28 at 9:15AM

(The Sunday Swiss Team game starts at 10AM.)

Mark your calendar and come participate. Only Northern Indiana Unit 154 members in good standing are eligible to participate and vote.

UPCOMING NORTHERN INDIANA UNIT 154 TOURNAMENTS

70% + GAMES

Don Valiska, Highland & Carol Osgerby, Dyer: 70.24% 5/23

Lou Nimnicht, Crown Point & Barbara Graegin, Dyer: 74.07% 6/4

Marci & Keith Meyer, Long Beach 73.50% 6/6

John Goring, Frankfort, IL & Larry Rabideau, St. Anne, IL: 70.83% 6/13

Ron Richey & Jackie Kohrman, Fort Wayne; 70.37% 6/16

Robert Grant & Kimberly Grant, Fort Wayne; 70.24% 6/18

Lynne Kostopoulos, Lansing, IL & John Goring, Frankfort, IL: 70.83% 6/20

John Teshima, Trail Creek & Bill Wendt, Valparaiso: 71.30% 6/27

Sally & Rich Will, Valparaiso: 74.31% 7/5

Gordon Ewing & Rich Bredemeyer, Fort Wayne: 70.24% 7/5

Ron Richey & Jackie Kohrman, Fort Wayne: 74.70% 7/6

Gary Chaney, Woodburn & & Kimberly Grant, Fort Wayne; 72.02% 7/12

Mike Devine, Homewood, IL & Rosietta Brown, Chicago, IL: 71.10% 7/18

Bill Flanagan, Granger & Conrad Adams, South Bend: 70.31% 7/18

Lou Nimnicht, Crown Point & John Goring, Frankfort, IL: 71.67% 7/23

Rank Advancements

Junior Master

John Gadd, South Bend; Cynthia Garver, Long Beach; Randy Peterson, Mishawaka; Karen Pratt, Granger;

Denzel Spaulding, Gary; Richard Will, Valparaiso; Sally Will, Valparaiso; Robert Young, Fort Wayne

Club Master

Bernice Bell, Merrillville; Vernon Clark, Decatur; Dennis Flennery, Fort Wayne;

Dr. Marc Kaminsky, Fort Wayne; Dr. David Miller, Long Beach

Sectional Master

Dorothy Hart, Chesterton; Larry Satek, Fremont; Phyllis Sherwin, Fort Wayne

Regional Master

Claire Fitch, Fort Wayne; Jane Krueger, Crown Point; Pamela Satek, Fremont

NABC Master

Lillian Armentrout, Roanoke; Carolyn Potasnik, Munster; Carol Watters, Columbia City

Adv. NABC Master

Zafar Khan, Crown Point; Gale Osgerby, Dyer

LIFE MASTER & BRONZE LIFE MASTER

Yuan Hsu from Hammond — always affable and polite — plays each hand with brilliance. We congratulate him for adding two Life Masters to his list of achievements. As far as we know, he is the first one from the Northwest Indiana Clubs who has earned a Life Master designation under the new ACBL rules instituted in January 2010 — where a player must accrue 500 masterpoints and at least 50 gold points, as well as additional black, silver and red points.

As a 23 year old, Yuan came to the U.S. from Taiwan in 1968, and after 5 years earned a Ph.D. degree in an applied mathematics field called Quantitative Method from Louisiana State University. Afterwards he taught mathematics and computer sciences for 20 years at East Carolina University at Greenville, North Carolina. He went back to Taiwan and taught there for another 17 years. It was during this period of time that he picked up bridge, but played only once in a while for fun.

After retiring in 2010 and moving to Hammond, Yuan joined the ACBL and played bridge regularly at Gary, Highland, Portage and Lynwood. Through bridge he says he has met so many nice people while learning plenty of bridge skills and techniques. He thanks all of the players who helped him get to the Life Master status. He truly appreciates the friendships that have been forged and looks forward to a lot more fun at bridge in the future with those many friends.

BRONZE LIFE MASTER

Gail Wells

She’s baaack! It was only last September that we featured Gail as our newest Life Master. Now, here we are again to celebrate her latest achievement - Bronze Life Master.

We send her our heartiest congratulations and look forward to more success going her way. To find out more about Gail, check out the South Bend website, SBBC.info and find the September 2015 issue of our newsletter. The only change from that issue is that she got SMARTER!

SILVER LIFE MASTER -- Margaret Kiernan, Schererville

RUBY LIFE MASTER

Dick Scheibelhut, Granger

Dick Scheibelhut is South Bend’s newest Ruby Life Master. He is a third generation South Bend resident having graduated from Central Catholic High and the University of Notre Dame, cum laude. After a tour of the Mediterranean with the Navy, he tried a number of jobs and businesses before joining the accounting firm of Peat Marwick, now KPMG. During his 30 years there, he had various titles including Director of Accounting.

Bridge started at an early age, playing with his parents and brother. His mother was death on anyone who opened 1 NT with a worthless doubleton. She played in a bridge group with Rosie Shafer and she and his sister also played with Rosie and Martha Hosinski.

For 15 years Dick spent 6 months in South Bend and 6 months in Tucson. He counts his blessings that he had good partners, such as Pat Borchert, who he says were very forgiving of his creative bids.

Dick’s brother, John (who also plays in our club) and Dick lived far apart for many years but would meet every year at a bridge tournament. To earn those last few gold points, they joined forces at a tournament in Fargo, North Dakota. It was a special way for Dick to become a Life Master. CONGRATULATIONS, DICK!

RUBY LIFE MASTER -- Constance Stevens, Highland

GOLD LIFE MASTER -- Michael Clegg, Fort Wayne
 

SAPPHIRE LIFE MASTER -- James O'Connell, Valparaiso

DIAMOND LIFE MASTER

Carol Osgerby, from Dyer, has been elevated to the rank of Diamond Life Master — an honor held by only 11 players within our unit. That's 5000 points and a lot of expert playing for many decades. Congratulations to a player who is held in the highest regard throughout our bridge clubs!

Carol comments upon this prestigious ranking:
   I started playing duplicate with a very nice man, and I played whenever I could when he asked me. His name was Milt Dreyfus. He taught me so very much, and I am most indebted to him. As time went on, several very good and nice players asked me to play and, WOW! Did I learn a lot. The mistakes I made were too many to count. I was very fortunate to play with some of the best in the area. I played with Stan Tobe, Jerry Yocum, Howie Schmid, and Zoe Ann and Baird Hutchins — just to name a few. Those were my early partners. Don and Pat Valiska, Mike Howards, Ruth Westberg, Gale Osgerby, George Roeper and many others recently have helped and carried me along the way. I have enjoyed each and every one — and for those I have not mentioned, please know that I have enjoyed our games, too.

FORT WAYNE’S LONGEST DAY

On June 20, 2016, fifty-two bridge players converged on the Fort Wayne Bridge Center to participate in the Longest Day Bridge Event as a fundraiser in the fight against Alzheimer’s. Organized and coordinated by Dr. Matthew Farber with the game directed by Jim Kart, the event raised $4,433 with 100% of the funds raised going to the fight against Alzheimer’s.

Dr. Farber’s efforts and solicitations resulted in 43 items being donated for the silent auction and several more for door prizes. Donors included Larry Cohen, Jeff Rubens, Audrey Grant, Anne Bruick, Mike Adams, Rose Ferguson, Tom Sherbondy and Jim Kart. Business donors included 800 Degrees Pizza, Bon Bon’s Coffee, Bridge World, Cap N’ Cork, Casa Restaurants, Chop’s Restaurant, Cork N’ Cleaver, Fresh Market, Masterpoint Press, Satek Winery, and Starbucks.

Monetary donations were made by Allen County Retinal Surgeons, Mary Ellen Argus, Fort Wayne Medical Society, Physicians Health Plan of Northern Indiana, Inc., Howard Chapman, Judy Jenkins, Carl Minick, Richard and LaVerne Petersen, Maryellen Rice, Joan Smith, Carol Suedoff, Donna Windmiller, Andy Farber, James and Anne Heger, and numerous anonymous bridge players who contributed to “the Jar”.

The Fort Wayne Duplicate Bridge Association thanks all the above, especially Dr. Farber. The FWDBA also issues a challenge to all of Northern Indiana Unit 154 for the 2017 Longest Day to raise $20,000 for the fight against Alzheimer’s. THINK PURPLE!!!

RUBY LIFE MASTERS HONORED IN SOUTH BEND

The Club held a special celebration on Wednesday, July 13 to honor the most recent Ruby Life Masters. The ruby is the birthstone of July and appropriately our members were served a Red Velvet cake and ice cream.

The honorees in attendance are pictured here (left to right) June Glazer, Dick Klitzke, Opal Jost, Bob Adams and Sara Grande.

Best wishes for a job well done!
 

FRIENDS WHO WILL BE MISSED

Janet Houseman

June 14,1927 - July 5, 2016
The South Bend Bridge Club has been saddened once again with the passing of another of their special members. Jan played in the South Bend Bridge Club for many years and attended their classes to improve her game. She grew up in Niles, just across the Indiana/Michigan border, and earned a Bachelor’s degree from Western Michigan University in Kalamazoo. She was employed in the offices of the Mathematics Department at the University of Notre Dame. She brought a gentleness and steadfastness to the South Bend club and we shall miss her greatly.
 

Ella Kart

Ella Kart, 98, passed away Thursday, July 7. Born in Clarence Center, NY, Ella worked as a nurse professionally, raised two sons, enjoyed traveling, hunting and fishing, and played bridge. Was Ella the world’s best bridge player? Not even close! Although she was a Bronze Life Master, it was her bridge presence that set Ella apart. Her demeanor at the table was such that her smile was the same whether she had just made four spades doubled and vulnerable with an overtrick or had just gone down in a cold three notrump contract. Her favorite partner in her later years was her son, Jim.

Ella’s legacy at the bridge table is not her number of masterpoints, but rather the love of the game played in a pleasant, competitive manner that she has passed on to Jim. Was Ella ‘sugar and spice and everything nice’? Oh, yeah, in spades!

Peter Smith

Peter “Pete” Smith, 86, of Fort Wayne passed away on July 20 in Fort Wayne and was married to the love of his life, Joan, for 63 years. He graduated from South Bend Washington High School and earned his bachelor’s degree from South Bend College of Commerce Business School. Peter was a Korean War Army veteran. He worked with Prudential Insurance Company for 26 years, retiring in 1986.

He was a member of Fort Wayne Duplicate Bridge Club, Elks, American Legion Post 47, Past Member of Fort Wayne Life Underwriters, Fort Wayne CLU Chapter and Fort Wayne CPCU Chapter. Peter also served as past president of South Bend Underwriters Association and the Georgetown Little League. He enjoyed golfing, reading, traveling, bridge and spending time with his family.

Pete, a Silver Life Master, had been in failing health for a number of months. However, his last session of duplicate bridge saw him as competitive as ever. He wanted to win! When one came to Pete’s table, he/she knew they were in for a battle. But, as always, when the round was over, Pete was your friend. That was Pete’s trademark: fierce in competition and your friend before and after the round. Pete will be greatly missed by his most frequent partner, wife Joan, the players at the Fort Wayne Bridge Center, and his many social bridge connections that he collected and nurtured over the years. Rest in peace, Pete. Your ‘Queen of Hearts’ is still playing at the Bridge Center and will keep your memory alive.