My road to gold life master was one of perseverance that was bolstered by having several friends, partners and mentors with infinite patience.

I attended my first duplicate in August of 1968. Shortly after that time, I met Terry Coughlin while working at Sunoco. He introduced me to Bill Foerster, Bill Bauer and Bill Mumbauer and my education began. With their help and encouragement I gained confidence and master points.

Two decades ago, through our children, I met Mitch Snyder who has stuck with me through my many weekly mistakes and those at national and regional tournaments.

And so, with time out for business travel and helping Gail raise our children, I collected enough master points over the next 50 years to earn my gold life master award

In 1975 I had a love affair! Of all strange things, it was with a game called “bridge.” I ate, slept, and breathed “bridge.” I took lessons until all hours of the night, read nothing but bridge books, traveled to tournaments all over the country, until I reached my goal of becoming a life master.

Shortly after that, life got in the way. I was working full time as a teacher, and I started my own business. I unfortunately had to put bridge on the back burner, where it stayed for 32 years! I retired several years ago, didn’t quite know what I wanted to do, and so I decided to return to the world of bridge.

I found things to be quite different. There were now all different plateaus (bronze, silver, gold, etc.), the little slips of paper with your master points on it were now computerized, and there were many new conventions. I also had to find compatible partners which was not an easy task. I definitely had my work cut out for me.

Through trial and error, I have found wonderful partners and have developed great friendships along the way. My personal goal was becoming a silver life master, which I now achieved; but I never loose sight of the bigger picture of becoming a better player.

I learned Bridge as a teen in Long Island, when my friend’s mother (Audrey Bruckner) decided that her son’s poker playing friends were smart enough to take on bridge. We got it in our blood immediately, and in between every sport you can name, we advanced into Duplicate. Yes, we were the youngest, but back then, Duplicate bridge was played in the evenings, so that worked for us. My partner then (“Earl” Ehrlich) and I even created our own bidding system, which was allowed in the 60’s. I even taught my dad to play in 2 days, and we played duplicate together the next week. A similar experiment with my dear (but not card-savvy) wife of 40 years, Susan, didn’t work as well when we were living in Mexico in 1978. She took notes, asked questions, but never really loved the game like I did.

Unfortunately, my career as an OB/GYN and my two children were the two biggest obstacles to my continuing towards any dream of Life Master status. So, I put bridge aside for a few decades, still reading the columns, and waiting for a chance at rekindling that spark. We did manage to squeeze in a game here and there, at college (Penn State) and even amongst those old friends from back in the day. Last year Glenn and I started trying again, as our bodies were getting a little beat up for the full court basketball that introduced us to each other. We both had to learn 2/1; as I had never even heard of it before. Now we both are loyal Larry Cohen disciples, his site being our go-to when bidding questions arise. Last Friday was the culmination of the road back, having played at Moorestown, South Jersey, Raffles, and even Thurs nights at The Philadelphian.

I would like to say that all of those clubs have been wonderfully supportive of new “old” players, as we have so enjoyed the competitive but welcoming spirit that Bridge can exemplify.