Minnesota Bridge

Colin Kehe - 1943 - 2016

 

Too soon again, it is my painful duty to report yet another loss in Minnesota's bridge community.  Please join me in saying goodbye to one more of our long time, excellent players:  Colin Kehe. In today's world, at 73, Colin leaves us way too early.....

A beautiful obituary for Colin appears in today's paper. You may read it here.

 

Colin is survived by his lovely wife and bridge partner of 27 years, Theresa. And, as bridge players, we know that special, long time partners such as Evan Sachs will be grieving, too.

Please note that tomorrow, Saturday, a memorial service shall be held for Colin.  It will be at 2PM at the Lakewood Cemetery Chapel, 3600 Hennepin Avenus S. Minneapolis. Visitation begins at 1:30.  The family requests that, in lieu of flowers, memorials preferred to Doctors Without Borders.

Every player in our bridge community is so valued.  Colin will be greatly missed.

 

Celebrating Jonathan

Jonathan and his Beloved Family

 

Monday evening, September 19th, a large gathering of family, friends, colleagues, neighbors and - of course, a great many bridge players - met for a memorial service honoring Jonathan Cohen.

 

Wonderful stories were shared by Jonathan's brother Harlan, colleagues of Jonathan's from the University of Minnesota, neighbors....  And Charlie Nauen, long time friend and bridge partner, expressed thoughts about Jonathan that were moving, complimentary - and funny.  

It still remains difficult to know that Jonathan will no longer be giving the rest of us a tough time at the table, nor attempting to share his baggie full of vegetables and rotting fruit to others.  Still, sharing memories of Jono with one another was comforting.  Tears - and smiles - were clearly both in evidence.

 

As the Minnesota bridge world celebrates years of friendship and competition with Jonathan, we also send our deep condolences to his family; wife Barbara, daughter Ilana and her husband Craig, grandchildren Nolan and Clara and others.

As a final remembrance, we will share thoughts from Dave Anderson. Though it has been many years since Dave has lived in the Twin Cities - no one who knew Jonathan could forget him. 

 

Unit 178 - Board of Directors 2016

Linda Brammer, President of Unit 178, has provided us with a new list of the Unit's Board of Directors, other key people for the Unit, plus additional information.

The link is below, and will also appear on the left column of MN Bridge.

Thank you Linda and all of our wonderful volunteers!

Unit 178 - Upcoming BOD Agenda

Unit 178's Board of Directors will meet at the Twin City Bridge Center on September 24th.  Details of the agenda are below!

Jonathan Cohen - 1947 - 2016

 

Your blogmaster so enjoys reporting our triumphs, promoting our game, photographing our parties and tournaments, plus so many other bridge activities. Just like you, I love our game and our people!

Yet, one activity breaks my heart. Reporting when we have lost one of our own is painful.

Today, I am sad to share that Jonathan Cohen passed away on Tuesday, September 13th. Many are aware that Jonathan had battled Parkinson's for some time. Now, Jonathan's fight has ended.

Good friend and partner Charlie Nauen shared this information with me:

Jonathan had not been well the past few months. Yet, this timing came as a surprise to his family and friends. Jonathan played bridge just a bit over a week ago with long time partners and friends Mark Krusemeyer and Patti Stuhlman.

Jonathan was an iconic member of our bridge community. He will be dearly missed.

A memorial service will be held Monday, September 19th. An obituary will appear in the newspaper this weekend, with details and location

We will be updating the website as we have more information, and stories about "Jono."

Please note.  Patti Stuhlman, broken hearted to have lost her friend and partner too soon, shared with me that Jonathan's service will be held at 6PM, September 19th, at the Cremation Society in Edina, 7110 France Avenue South.

Jonathan's obituary can be viewed here.  A great photo of our friend, along with memories and description that capture Jono so very well.

Deepest sympathies to Jonathan's family and his many friends.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Paul Bunyan Sectional Results

 

This past weekend, many players from Minnesota, Wisconsin and Canada headed to Duluth for September's Paul Bunyan Sectional. There, they enjoyed 3 days of pair and team games, plus great hospitality.

At the top of the masterpoint list, no surprise to find two of our Minnesota super stars: John Koch and Carole Miner. Together, John and Carol earned 29.15 masterpoints. Two other partnerships also did quite well: Tom Grue and Gregg Van Dyke nabbed 22.68; Terry and Kathy Beckman, 19.68. The entire masterpoints earned list is here.

Tom and Gregg also performed a rarely seen accomplishment.  In the Saturday night pair game, they racked up a mindboggling percentage of 80.42%!  Not surprisingly, the next closest percentage was 25% lower!  Very well done, boys!

Our thanks to tournament chairmen Diane Carr and Warren Nelson, tournament director Tony Ames and all our other fine volunteers.

All results from the tournament can be viewed here.

The Best of Bridge

 

We bridge players well know that our game is the finest mind game ever created. Fascinating, tough, challenging, never-mastered - no matter how good you are ... One can play bridge for a lifetime - and it won't be enough.

As great as our game is, however, our people match it. And part of what is so exceptional about our people is how we can get connected with one another, no matter who we are, where live - and so on.

A short while ago, I received an email from Professor Francis Shen at the University of Minnesota Law School. His folks were going to be visiting from out of town, his dad wanted a game of bridge; did I know anyone who might be interested?

Of course I did; me - your webmaster!  Jerry Shen and I set up a game during the Labor Day Sectional for Saturday, agreed upon a card - and went on to have a very enjoyable and mostly successful game. We also learned of mutual friends we had in Jerry's home town of St. Louis - including a long ago successful Twin City player (and an early regular partner of mine) - Chris Patrias.

But - that wasn't all!

 

Near the end of the session, we faced Jenna Tichon and Freddie Mykytyshyn.  Since I'd never seen them before, I inquired if they were local players.  Nope! Visitors all the way from Winnipeg!  Jenna has been playing for about ten years; Freddie much less. Both, however, love the game and were glad to be competing in Minneapolis.

A great game - great people - new friendships.

Nothing better!

 

Bill Quinn Labor Day Sectional - Results

 

If you're pondering who might have been the top masterpoint winner at any Minnesota tournament, guessing John Koch often will give you the correct answer.  So it was over Labor Day weekend. John earner 23.72 masterpoints; about a point and a half behind was Joseph Koester.  Quite impressive was third place; Sandy Nelson has less experience than many of our competitors, yet she was the only other player to earn over 20 masterpoints for the tourney!  Well done, John, Joseph and Sandy, plus the other players who placed high in a number of events.  The full list of results is here.

 

Always wonderful to see people having a great time at the bridge table....  

 

Or - after the game has ended!

As always, our thanks to our hosts, Teri & Chip Blu, great director, Brian Weikle, and the omnipresent player, director and all around wizard at the TCBC, TGLO (The Great Larry Oakey!)

 

Many thanks to all who came, fought, contributed and volunteered!  Hope you had a wonderful time!

Gordy Anderson - 1923 - 2016

 

Our community is passionate about bridge - and equally passionate about the people who play it. Thus, whenever our community loses one of our members, the grief is significant.

August 29th, Gordy Anderson passed away.  Though friends were not aware, Gordy had been suffering from liver cancer, and lost his battle after a short hospital stay.

I requested some thoughts from Gordy's close friends and partners.  Terry Lijewski was kind enough to send me these warm and wonderful memories.

Gordy was a gem of a person.

I started playing with him in November of 1986 at the Minnesota State tournament. I put my name in for a partner and got him. Maggie Grue said "Boy were you lucky you got him!" We finished 4th overall that day and won the men's pair in the Winter Carnival in January 1987.

I played with  Gordy for thirty years and only once did we have a misunderstanding when one of us didn't show up. For seventeen years we went to local and close sectional tournaments. After that we played in many club games.

Gordy, this year, wrote up a system to use as a defense against Bergen, just one of countless systems he wrote up for us over the years.

He was a fantastic person and a superb bridge player. I and many other people will sorely miss him.

            Terry Lijewski

 

Terry also shared with me details about Gordy's funeral.

Services will be 11AM Friday, September 2nd at the Zion Lutheran Church.  Visitation is one hour prior to the service. Lunch will be served following the service.

The address is:  1601 4th Avenue, Anoka 55303.  

Gordy's obituary is in Wednesday's paper.  How amazing that Gordy played bridge at a high level through 93 years of age!

 

Addendum:

Bill Voedisch attended Gordy's funeral on Friday.  Bill was kind enough to share these reflections with us.

 

Terry Lijewski spoke at the funeral, attending with his wife and son.

 

Other bridge players at Gordy's funeral were Janet Williams, Mary Meinecke, Grant Duffrin and myself, all of us from the Bridge Center of St. Paul.

 

Hearing stories about Gordy, a most interesting fellow, was so nice.

 

His family was grateful that Gordy's bridge friends were at his service.

 

            Bill

 

 

 

 

Well-Heeled

 

MN Bridge is always looking for stories about our bridge players.  Here's a great one!

Alice Ernster is a duplicate player from the Chatfield area.  And - a self described "floozy"!

If you think that most bridge players are old and dowdy - well, you have not met Alice!

Here are the details - dressed up in 4 inch heels!

Our thanks to Greg Caucutt for a great story about a fun lady!

Bill Quinn Labor Day Silver Point Sectional - Sept 2-5

 

Celebrate Labor Day weekend in the best way possible - with a bridge tournament!

Head to the Twin Cities Bridge Center at 60th & Nicollet.  Four days of one session events; the schedule is here!