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Northern Indiana Unit 154
American Contract Bridge League
District 12
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RISING IN THE RANKS
CLUB MASTERS
SECTIONAL MASTER
REGIONAL MASTER
In 2006 or 2007, Howard, Lindy and I joined the club.On August 1, 2007 when Howard and I had a 70% game, I was hooked!!! My pal, Norm Stephan, told me we should put an ad in the paper or a sign in the front lawn!!Norm was my strong supporter and I miss him.
I became a Life Master on Feb 4, 018 with the help of my friends and partners, Kim Grant, Gary Chaney and
LIFE MASTER
In 2012 my good friends Wini & Paul Morsches convinced me to start playing Duplicate on a regular basis.Later we went on a Bridge cruise through the Panama Canal and I began my next bucket list goal to try for my Life Masters.With encouragement from many more members in Fort Wayne and the beginning lessons with Gary Chaney and his mentoring program I got totally involved.My mentors to begin with were Carl Wheeler, Judy Nelsen, and Tom Carpenter. When I reached the 200 point level I started playing regularly with Lee Baatz.He has been a great teacher and friend.Since we are both from Whitley County and we rode together it was nice to discuss our wins and losses and improve bidding and play.
The last two years have been surreal with our sectional and regional wins and Lee received his Life Master in LIFE MASTER Mike Young South Bend Mike comes from a family who loved to play cards - pinochle and euchreSo when he worked at Indiana Bell, he watched noontime Bridge games and was soon hooked.He played in the Indian-apolis Bridge Club which was started by Easly Blackwood (of Blackwoodconvention fame) taking lessons from avery good bridge teacher, Thelma Wright.After 7 weeks of lessons, he was thrown into the bridge world playing on Wednesday nights in the novice game. After several months, he &hispartner decided to play with the "biggies" and he was on his way. Bridge was put on hold as his children were growing and, umpiring baseball took its place.. When he retired andmoved to St. Joseph he found the itch to play bridge again and took lessons from Carol Purdy & Alina Grier.He is thankful for the wonderful mentors who helped him - John Bodish, Cappy Gagnon, Peter Elliot, Jill Culby and Bruce Sokol.He says he learns something new with every game. GREAT JOB, MIKE!
SILVER LIFE MASTER
Dick Petersen began playing bridge in 1964, the same year he moved to Fort Wayne for a job at Magnavox, enrolled in graduate school and began skiing. A very busy year. His early experience was noon time rubber bridge at work and some all-nighters in school. One of my early partners was Tom Carpenter who introduced him to Kaplan- Sheinwold bidding (weak two-bids). In 1977 he met LaVerne at a "Parents Without Partners" dance. They had both lost their first spouses. They dated for several years and married in 1982. LaVerne knew Dick was a bridge player, so she took lessons from Ruth Stephans and they played in several rubber bridge clubs for the next 13 years. They knew of duplicate bridge, but between work and caring for his mother, they knew they lacked the time to get that involved. LaVerne retired in 1993. Dick retired in 1995 and his mother died that year. Their first duplicate play was above Boxbergers in the Tuesday night game run by Bob Swindell. They remember Mike and Anne Marie Bonahoom as the friendly couple who made them feel welcome and answered their questions. Soon they were invited to join the Fort Wayne bridge club and the Cedar Creek club. They did quite well as pretty good C class players, went to tournaments, and became life masters in 2000. This was about when the Fort Wayne club moved to Bluffton road. They took the bridge director�s course at the New Orleans National and the Bridge Teacher's Course the next year. That's when Dick thinks they were offered the job to be managers of the Tuesday night club.
LaVerne was elected to the Fort Wayne board for several years and to the Cedar Creek board. Dick was elected to the Fort Wayne board about 2004 and served through 2014. The lease at Bluffton road required us to pay for all the maintenance, so Dick wound up doing all the facility repairs including the computer, the lighting, the water heater and the plumbing. He designed and built the storage shelving and repaired the furniture as needed.
The first web site for the Fort Wayne club was designed by Craig Harold and Dick thought he did a masterful job. Unfortunately, he lost interest in bridge soon after, so Dick became the club webmaster until 2013 at which time the club hired a web designer to build a new site. Mary Lou Clegg is now maintaining the website.
During his bridge career, Dick has also trained 16 new directors, installed the new computer accessories (Bridgemates and dealing machine) and trained the other directors in their operation.
LaVerne and Dick still play, still direct, still manage Tuesday night and still love this beautiful game. LaVerne became a silver life master in 2014, thanks to her early retirement, and Dick just got to that rank this January.
SILVER LIFE MASTER
SILVER LIFE MASTER John Hamilton, South Bend
John reports that, since becoming a Bronze Life Master in 2014, he has been earning matchpoints at local clubs in the Florida area.He continues his work in the law profession and will be coming home soon and joining his friends at the club to earn some South Bend points. His friends will be happy to see him so that he can offer his experience in running sectionals.He and his wife, Lynn, did a wonderful job chairing past South Bend sectionals and their expertise will be welcome. CONGRATULATIONS, JOHN!
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