The past week was filled with family and friends gathering together to celebrate Thanksgiving - shopping, eating - and battling the elements. Unfortunately, however, this week also has been one of deep sadness for our Minnesota community. Yet again, we have lost a treasured member of our bridge world: Bruce Boje.
I received a call yesterday from one of Bruce's regular partners, Judy Nassar. Apparently Bruce had a sudden heart attack, went to the hospital, was getting treatment - and - died. Only 71, and seemingly in fine condition; a shock to all.
Judy kindly sent me some thoughts about her good friend and partner. We have memories from other bridge players - and also from Bruce's "main man" at the table - Vern Swing. I am most grateful for their kind, caring, positive and warm thoughts about Bruce.
Bruce was my favorite bridge partner because he was almost always calm and kind. We had a lot of fun playing together for many years. We won more than our fair share of the time! In addition, he was the best teammate because he never focused on the errors of teammates - only his own.
In the fall of 2013 Judy Nassar approached me about developing a partnership with Bruce Boje. I knew Bruce as a fellow traffic engineer at a rival company, but didn’t realize he also was fine bridge player. We hit it off immediately. Bruce was fierce competitor, but never criticized his partner or teammates, always focusing on how he could have improved a play, a defense, or a bid regardless of whether the result was a top or bottom.
Bruce was passionate about life, his wife and family, his career and his hobbies. He was an avid cyclist, loved pickleball, enjoyed his techy toys, loved Mexican food and beer, and loved bridge. Bruce relished the coming of spring so he could get on his bike again and get his 50-mile rides done on the days he wasn’t playing pickleball. In his younger days he raced throughout the summers. When Bruce was introduced to pickleball he dove headlong long into the game. He and Joyce played many tournaments and were considered experts. He was generous with his time and knowledge and encouraged anyone to start playing and offered to teach newcomers the basics, and at the same time was active in the local organization as President, then Treasurer.
Bruce loved his gadgets and could tell you how to remotely open his garage door from his phone, remotely control the temperature in his house from his phone, and how the Tesla he and Joyce bought was getting bi-weekly software updates and what those updates did. He was passionate about alternative energy, and as was always the case with Bruce, if he was passionate about a subject, he was very well studied. Bruce could explain to you in detail how solar panels worked and what to expect in the upcoming decades.
Bruce loved Mexican Food and loved beer. When we attended out of town tournaments, whether in Fargo, anywhere in Iowa, in Toronto or in Vegas he would always choose Mexican Food for dinner between sessions if given a choice. Beer was a requirement after the evening session and if Nachos accompanied it, life didn’t get better than that.
Bruce approached bridge as a partnership game and spent hours developing symmetric wrinkles in our methods to handle all hand types. When we decided to play the Attack System, Bruce converted the Soloway-Goldman notes into a spreadsheet we could modify easily and then insisted we practice bidding on BBO. We spent countless hours bidding hands to improve part score decisions, game decisions and slam bidding.
Needless to say, I was devastated when I received the call from Joyce in the evening of the November 30th, that Bruce had passed away. I will greatly miss you - my good friend - my partner.
Vern Swing
Our bridge community is not enormous. Every player matters; every one is meaningful and plays a role in how we enjoy our game - and our friendships with one another.
Bruce was another of our "bridge jewels."
Our deepest sympathies go to his wife Joyce and other family and friends. And one last look at Bruce - gentleman and student of our game, having a blast playing the game we love with the people we treasure.
Peg
I was also shocked and saddened to hear of Bruce's passing yesterday.
I first met Bruce after taking a new job in 2007. Bruce was a long-time expert in the traffic engineering industry and I was semi-new to the field. Bruce took me under his wing and helped me learn the technical details of the profession. As noted by Vern, Bruce was a tech lover and tech expert. He was a whiz with computers and spreadsheets. Several of the tools I use in my work to this day are based on templates Bruce developed decades ago. His knowledge of the 80's era equipment still used to operate modern traffic signals was amazing. Even after his retirement, and after I had moved on to another firm, I would still reach out to him for advice and guidance, and he would happily provide it.
On one of our work road trips, Bruce asked if I knew how to play bridge, and was more than slightly surprised when I said "Yes!" From that point forward we spent many hours discussing bridge, playing together as partners occasionally. Of the countless guidance, tips and recommendations I received from Bruce as an up-and-coming player, one of my favorites was when he lent me Mel Colchamiro's book, "How You Can Play Like an Expert." In seemingly every session I've played since, there is at least one "Rule of X" hand in the set, and the tips from that book always seem to pay off! Bruce also strongly espoused the value of support doubles and Bergen raises. He was patient when I would inevitably forget one during a set, but at the same time he knew how to motivate me like a parent in order to learn from the mistake and improve for the future.
I will greatly miss my friend and mentor.
Posted by: Nick Erpelding | December 01, 2019 at 09:19 PM