In addition to our bridge world's loss of Susan Wernz, we sadly must report that another long time, treasured player passed away: Dick Kielty. Dick's friend of a lifetime, Ron DeHarpporte, kindly offered to share his thoughts about Dick below. We are most grateful for Ron's tales about Dick - a quiet man with qualities and talents to treasure and admire.
Thank you, Ron, for the story of a life well lived. Our condolences to Margaret and Dick's family members - and to our bridge community.
Last week Dick Kielty’s wife, Margaret, called me and said that Dick had cancer of the pancreas and was dying. I spoke with Dick a few hours before he died. We relived some old times that came with a friendship that started when we were children.
Since grade school, Dick and I were close friends. We were in a group of students at the University of MN that started playing bridge in the card room of Coffman Memorial Union in 1957. Some of our old time players may remember names like Hugh McLean, Russ Weikle, Jerry Ballenger, Morrie Frier, Farrell Green, Dave Setterholm, Murray Appelbaum, Jim Hall, Eddie Kantar, Marshall Schneider, Alan Goldstein and others who went on to play a lot of bridge for many years.
I won my first Red points in the 1958 special regional awarded to MN to celebrate 100 years of statehood. I played with Dick and our teammates for the Sunday Board of Match team were Hugh McLean and Russ Weikle. I think we came in fourth in one session and won 2 or 3 points.
Dick - “Kilts” to many - was considered probably the player with the most potential by the top players in the Twin Cities while we were in college. But Dick was more serious than most of us and thought that taking advantage of his engineering degree, and to actually work for a living might be a good idea. So he played very infrequently for the next 50 years.
Many of us who did try to earn a living, and pretty much stopped playing until retirement, started playing more after retirement but Dick never really retired. He worked as a scientist in the field of metallurgy at one company for almost all of his career that really did not end until a few years ago.
I got Dick out to play now and then, and about ten years ago he begin to play at the Bridge Center more often with Tom Utter and others. Dick never really caught up with the curve on modern bidding. Yet those who played with and against him can attest to fact that he was an excellent card player.
I will always remember Dick as one of the most naturally ethical bridge players that I have known. I use the the word “natural” because ethics was absolutely automatic for Dick. He simply could never consider being any other way. He played bridge in the way he lived his life, with the highest integrity and honesty that set him apart from most of us.
Ron DeHarpporte
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