Richard Mao, Mishawaka & Howard Piltch, South Bend — 70.27% November 7
Elaine DeLaney, South Bend & Frank Yoder, Goshen — 71.53% November 18
Richard Mao, Mishawaka & Bud Hinckley, Granger — 73.38% December 4
Steve Watson, Munster & Lou Nimnicht, Crown Point — 71.73% December 5
Ruth Westberg, Tinley Park, IL & John Goring, Frankfort, IL — 72.12% December 10
Laverne Niksch, Portage & Wayne Carpenter, Chesterton — 71.15% December 18
Kimberly Grant, Fort Wayne & Lillian Armentrout, Fort Wayne — 71.35% December 20
Elnora Washington, Gary & Delphine Slater, Gary (99er game) — 70.59% January 12
John & Tricia Killeen, Mishawaka — 70.51% January 18
Karsten & Ilse Grove, South Bend (599er game) — 72.22% January 24
Junior Masters: Mary Gunder, Fort Wayne; Charlene Millard, Gary; Beth Rader, Valparaiso; Kay Lively, Highland; Keiko Storin, South Bend; Mary Jo Vera, Hammond
Club Masters: Delphine Slater, Gary; Carol Watters, Columbia City; Charles Cairns, Fort Wayne; Phillip Loe, Fort Wayne; Susan Snyder, Fort Wayne
Sectional Masters: Alta Allen, Gary; Jean Bennett, Marion; Arlyne Filler, Highland; William Peters, Fort Wayne; Judy Selund, Odgen Dunes
Regional Masters: Barbara Fedder, Granger; Alan Geller, Munster; Patricia Haley, South Bend; James Kart, Fort Wayne; Gale Osgerby, Dyer; Bob Porter, St. John; Carolyn Potasnik, Munster
Life Master: Karsten Grove, South Bend
Bronze Life Master: Marci Meyer, Long Beach
Silver Life Master: Nancy Traylor, Marion
Gold Life Master: Patricia Killeen, Mishawaka
GOLD LIFE MASTERTricia Killeen was taught by her mother to play bridge, and while in college some of her dates with John, whom she later married, were duplicate bridge games in the student center. Tricia started dating John while she was a student at St. Mary’s College in South Bend and John was a student at Notre Dame. Tricia did not neglect her studies, though, and she received her undergraduate degree in history and secondary education, an M.A.T. from Notre Dame in social studies, and special education certifications from Indiana University
Twenty-eight years of teaching and raising a family put bridge on the shelf for Tricia. She returned to duplicate bridge in 2002 by taking classes and then playing regularly in 2003 when she retired.
Tricia and John have two children, Elizabeth, a commonwealth’s attorney, and Thomas, a computer consultant. They became grandparents on November 16, 2011 to Connor James, who was born three months early. Being a fighter, Connor took his first steps on January 20 of this year. Needless to say, he is the light of Tricia’s life and her iPad photo album.
Tricia has been the South Bend Bridge Club manager for three years. During her leadership the club has seen a growth in membership, new additions to the architecture of the club, the establishment of a website, monthly newsletters, and many other forward-thinking ideas that were implemented during her tenure. She is appreciated for her diligence in keeping things moving smoothly.
Tricia reached the Gold Life Master level while playing with her husband, John, Sara Marcus and Dave Irwin in a team game just before 2012 ran out. We congratulate her for an accomplishment many of us hope to attain someday, and we wish for her many more masterpoints.
BRONZE LIFE MASTERMarci Meyer of Long Beach, IN achieved her Bronze Life Master in November of 2012. She likens masterpoints to a researched theory in life that when you accomplish your achievements or goals, you won’t be happy for as long as you think. Thus, the quest of all duplicate players is to set their sights on the next level.
Her love of the game evolves around the friendships, the competition and personal desire to improve her game and to mentor and teach. Marci is an ACBL accredited teacher and runs a 7-week series of lessons on popular conventions twice a year in Michigan City. She also gives a 30-minute mini-lesson each week before the Monday game in Michigan City. She became an ACBL club director in 2006.
Playing bridge and a musical instrument are supposed to help ward off Alzheimer’s/dementia. Marci states that she probably plays the piano better than she plays bridge. Her mother has dementia, and anything that she can do to personally help prevent this epidemic disease that is taking over our nation brings her great joy. Marci volunteers running a bridge group once a week at an assisted living facility where her mother lives. One of the tables consists of four people who live in the memory care unit, who are suffering from dementia, but can still bid and play a hand quite well. This only confirms the belief that we all need to continue to strive for improvement in our bridge game and stay challenged, but most of all, to enjoy the friendships that are established at the bridge table. She is seeing the results first hand. Marci serves as a co-leader for the Alzheimer’s/Dementia Services of Northern Indiana support group in Michigan City, so this disease is a near and dear topic.
In this game of partnerships, Marci thanks those players who have periodically sat at the table with her when her main partner, both at the bridge table and in life, husband Keith, is either working or on the golf course. She is eternally thankful to Keith for introducing her to bridge in college. They will be married 50 years in 2014, but after one of her first bridge lessons from Keith, they laugh that it’s amazing that they even got together. They sat down at the bridge table in the student union in college. Marci states that, at that time, she thought she was pretty neat — sitting in the union with a senior in college, smoking a cigarette, and playing bridge. What else did a girl want in 1963? Marci opened 1NT. Keith immediately jumped to 6NT. It turned out that Marci knew you needed 6-9 points to bid 1NT (but not on the opening bid). Marci remembers that Keith was not very happy, but the promise was made that they would never argue at the bridge table, and their commitment to be best friends has never ended.
LIFE MASTERS Leslie Garvey recently moved to South Bend from Illinois. She became a Life Master in April. She was born and raised in Toronto where her parents were avid bridge players. She and her sisters caddied in the Canadian tournaments, and they all said that, after their parents discussed their bridge hands over and over, they would never play the game. Well, we all know how that goes!
Leslie went to Europe for a few years and met a sailor in a bar in Spain who came from Springfield IL. They were married 42 years ago, settled in Elkhart, IL and raised three great children who have blessed them with six wonderful grandchildren. Leslie just retired from 30 years of critical care nursing and moved up here to be near four of her grandchildren (two live in Marion MA).
Leslie became hooked on bridge in 2000 and began to learn
duplicate bridge in 2005. She loves to travel, play bridge, spend time with the
kids and will probably take up golf again, after giving it up five years ago,
when it was a choice of bridge or golf. She has already found partners to play
with at the club and will have no problem filling her calendar schedule.
Another Grove has become a Life Master. Karsten Grove’s
wife, Ilse, attained that status late in 2011, and she’s happy to have him join
her.
Karsten was born and grew up with his older brother and sister in a small coastal village in Denmark. His father, a minister, died when Karsten was 17. After finishing high school, he moved to the second largest city in Denmark to study mathematics and physics. However, before graduating with a master’s degree, he embarked on what turned out to be a career as a research mathematician. He was offered a job at Stony Brook, one of the most exciting places for geometry at the time, but was denied a leave of absence from University of Copenhagen where he was working — (ironically the letter was sent by Ilse). Nevertheless, he started dating her and they married in 1976. Karsten adopted Ilse’s then three-year-old twin boys and added another son a year later, at which time the family moved to the US for Karsten to visit Stony Brook.
In 1983 Karsten was offered a job as a full professor at the University of Maryland. Toward the end of the century Ilse and Karsten began playing cards and eventually, bridge, with some of their best friends. They enrolled in a local bridge club and started taking lessons in 2000 (some excellent classes from Leslie Shafer and her husband, Charlie “Studmuffin”).
At age 60, Karsten accepted an attractive endowed chair
professorship at Notre Dame, and in 2007 he and Ilse moved to South Bend,
leaving behind their now-grown children in Maryland. Soon after arriving, Ilse
and Karsten enrolled in the South Bend Bridge Club, so Karsten’s main hobbies
are now “home improvement” and “bridge”. He enjoys the friendly atmosphere in
the club and the advice given by many experts. He wants to thank, in particular,
Elaine Delaney for her excellent Thursday lessons, the Killeens for mentoring,
and, last but not least, Ilse, with whom he has earned almost all of his
masterpoints. Other pleasures, in addition to work, involve spending time with
their children and now two grandchildren, Jasmin (four years) and Scarlet (eight
months).
IN MEMORIAMTom Hodges was so looking forward to living his dream in Homestead FL. He moved there in late November. On December 14, he was taken by ambulance to the hospital with pneumonia. He was in kidney failure. He was resuscitated, but his body was not fighting the infection. Tom died on December 21. We all mourn his passing. He was 66 years old.
Tom began his duplicate bridge career about 1½ years ago. (He finally joined ACBL last November.) He had two sons — one a teacher of band and the other who just graduated from the University of Illinois in geology. Tom worked at Arcelor-Mittal as an accountant in finance, then went on to production planning, and finished in information technology.
As his brother said, “We will miss his friendliness and
compassion.”
THE AGES OVERWHELM THE SCOREOn January 16 the two oldest members of the South Bend Bridge Club placed first in the open game with a 59.72%. Their combined ages of 189 are more than triple their percentage.
We congratulate Mary Powell (left), 96, of
Niles, MI, and Martha Hosinski (right), 93, of South Bend, for a well-played
game.
9O YEARS YOUNGThe South Bend Bridge Club was pleased to celebrate Sarah Arvesen’s 90th Birthday by presenting her with a bouquet of flowers, a lovely cake, and their best wishes. Sarah was born and grew up on a ranch in Oelrichs, South Dakota. (Even the post office asked her where that is.) Her educational pursuits took her to Colorado State, where she earned a degree in nutrition followed by a dietetics internship in Chicago. In 1944 she married a fellow Colorado State graduate and in 1946 they moved to South Bend. Their marriage was blessed with 3 children, 6 grandchildren, and 2 great-grandchildren.
During her stay in South Bend, Sarah worked at St. Joseph
Hospital in Mishawaka, taught nutrition at St. Mary’s College for 2 years, and
is now enjoying a retirement after 28 years at Memorial Hospital. As a child,
Sarah and her dad played all kinds of card games, so during her retirement she
took a series of bridge lessons from Ren Singleton. That’s when she discovered
duplicate bridge which she says “gives me many hours of enjoyment with wonderful
people”. Her fellow players are most delighted that Sarah has found a special
place in their club.
NEW DIRECTOR Wayne Carpenter began his service as director of the Tuesday game in Portage at Woodland Park on January 8. He succeeds Jim O’Connell, who was director of the
Beach Bridge Club for over 13 years. Wayne has demonstrated a director who is well prepared and qualified — we are so lucky to have him at the helm.
Wayne comments — Taking over the Beach Bridge Club is an honor and privilege. I am told the game is over fifty years old and I just didn't want it to stop! My first game was going great until I heard someone call, “DIRECTOR!!” Reality set in and I realized they were calling for me. Good thing it was an easy call, but it did get my attention. Going forward, I will do my best to keep the standards high and the game fun for all. Thanks again to everyone who has been helping along the way.
HURRICANE SANDY DONATION The Community Bridge Club of Gary set aside a Wednesday and Saturday game to raise money to help support the Hurricane Sandy Relief efforts. Their contribution went to the Hurricane Sandy Long Island Disaster Relief in partnership with the McCormick Foundation of Chicago to help those in need on Long Island.
Pictured here in the presentation of a $100 check is Kashif Shaikh, Program Officer (who awards grants), Trish De Preter, Senior Development Officer (who raises money for the foundation), Barbara Walczak, club director, and Martha Harris, active bridge player.
The McCormick Foundation matches 50¢ for each dollar donated, so the club’s contribution adds $150.00 toward this charitable endeavor in helping the victims and their ongoing struggle to recover.