RISING IN THE RANKS
JUNIOR MASTERS
Donald Grote, Chesterton; Dr. James Lane, Chesterton; Fred Maione, Bonita Springs; Roy Martin, Auburn
CLUB MASTERS
Lois Ehinger, Fort Wayne; Candace Hurwich, South Bend; Rick Warburton, Schererville
SECTIONAL MASTER
Robert Enyeart, Fort Wayne; Penny Henshaw, Fort Wayne; Barbara Lawson, Valparaiso; Marty Martin, Niles
Marcy Tomes, Valparaiso
REGIONAL MASTER
Margaret Lewis, Granger ; Kay Lively, Highland
LIFE MASTER
Otto Bonahoom
Fort Wayne, Indiana
Born Nov 5, 1930,
I started playing bridge in law school in 1952.After graduation and service time, I met Lindy Moss and Howard Chapman when we were young lawyers in Fort Wayne.We played bridge with another young lawyer on our lunch hour.The first to arrive would shuffle and deal four hands which we started playing as soon as all had arrived.The player with dummy hand would shuffle
and deal four more hands while the game was being played so that we could play as many hands as possible in an hour. After a short time, the others askedif I played golf. When said I did not, they exclaimed: “Well, go learn!, then when it rains we can just go to clubhouse and play bridge.”Howard and I always had two decks in our golf bags.Before long it turned into golf, dinner and bridge once a week at the Fort Wayne CC.My good friend, Bob Carteaux, kibitzed our games for a few minutes and suggested that we join FWDBC.
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
Howard Chapman.
I am a retired lawyer.My wife, Jane, and I have 6 children, 15 grandchildren and 5 great grandchildren.
LIFE MASTER
Carol Watters
Columbia City
Born 1-16-40
In 1994 when my sister Vickie lived in Fort Wayne and started playing Duplicate.She convinced me to join the ACBL so I could play in the Regional with her where we won two 1st place Rookie trophies. played a couple more times before she moved to Ohio and I maintained membership in ACBL for awhile.
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
November 2017.I was pleasantly surprised to open my mail on February 1st and discover that the ACBL had gone back to when I joined in 1994, which allowed me to attain the designation of life Master with 300 points. This has been a wonderful experience and I will always remember the many kindnesses and encouragement from the
numerous members who were willing to share their knowledge of this GREAT GAME with someone who needed a lot of help.
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
Fort Wayne
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 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.
LIFE &
BRONZE LIFE MASTER
Daniel Cunningham, La Porte
SILVER LIFE MASTER
Dorothy Harrell, Kokomo
SILVER LIFE MASTER
John Hamilton, South Bend
