Roger Lord of St. Louis passed away in June. One of District 8's leading players, Roger was a Grand Life Master with almost 11,000 career masterpoints.

From the Daily Bulletin at the 2013 St. Louis NABC:

No one is a more respected veteran and scholar of the game in St. Louis Bridge than Roger Lord. Lord started playing rubber bridge in 1962, and it was love at first sight.

As he describes it, “Once I was hooked, it would have been insufficient to say that I spent every free waking moment playing, discussing, or studying the game, because I also dreamed about hands and card combinations, sometimes interchanging cards with people.”

Lord had many mentors along the way including Pat Ochs, a tough-playing club proprietor, and two members of the winning 1962 Cinderella Vanderbilt team—world-class table tennis player and bridge player, Garrett Nash, and renowned bridge instructor, Jerry Levitt. Lord and Levitt went on to share their vast knowledge of the game in a daily bridge column featured in the St. Louis Globe Democrat and the Kansas City Star.

Over the years, Lord has supported St. Louis bridge players in so many ways. He has helped many new players get started and has been a willing resource for countless tough bridge questions.

Most important, he achieved his NABC title and three other close finishes all with native St. Louis players. He chalked up a third-place finish in the 1972 Spingold and a second in the 1973 Grand National Teams playing with Levitt, Norbert Kremer and Ron Smith. He finished second in the 2004 Silodor Open Pairs with long-time partner, Jacqueline Sincoff.

And, as the piece de resistance, Lord won his North American Championship at the 2003 NABC in Philadelphia, playing with St. Louis attorney Alan Popkin in the Silver Ribbon Pairs.

In January 2013, Lord had the ultimate satisfaction of surpassing 10,000 masterpoints to become a Grand Life Master on his own home turf at the St. Louis Winter Sectional. Unit 143 is very proud to claim Roger Lord as a favorite son!

From his friend and partner Alan Popkin:

Roger Lord was absolutely unique. Unique in everything he did. He was the best most creative declater I ever played with or against. Unsatisfied with all bidding systems, he methodically developed his own rather complex methods. He was also a brilliant and unrelenting defender.

On a personal level, he had the driest sense of humor of anyone I know. While we didn’t play or socialize in recent years, whenever I saw him at bridge events, he always had interesting tidbits either about bridge or otherwise. I miss him .