2004-2010 Members of the Simsbury Bridge Club Part 1

Who was who at the SBC. Continue reading

I started playing in the Wednesday evening games at the Simsbury Bridge Club (SBC) in May of 2004. My experiences playing there in the early years and my recollections about the people who were my partner are recounted here. This entry describes other recollection about the club, including lists of the people who participated and my memories of them, if any.

If my recollection is correct, the club charged $5 for a membership in 2004. The membership was for life; there were no annual dues. The table fee each week was also $5 for members. Non-members were charged $6. I bought a membership the first evening. At first the director had access to the kitchen that was adjacent to the Youth Room. So, free tea and instant coffee were available.

I took this and the next four photos shown here with a disposable camera at the Christmas party of 2004 or 2005. Shown here are (I think) Paula and Kathy Colket.

Paula Beauchamp was the owner/director of the club when I joined. I don’t know much about the history of the club before that. At one time there was a plaque honoring someone who had managed the club in the early nineties. I wish that I had taken a photo of it. The plaque was removed at some point before 2019.

Here are some of the people who played in 2004 and were never my partner in SBC games:

  • Louise Alvord mostly played with Carol Schaper (SHAH pur) and Clara Horn. She played once or twice a month for several years. I do not know what happened to her. The Internet (in 2021) seems to think that she might still be living in Tarriffville. She was a former nun, but she did not resemble any of the nus that I knew. She no longer had any use for anything related to the Catholic Church. Carol suggested once that Louise might be interested in my book on the popes, Stupid Pope Tricks (posted here). Louise wanted no part of it. I discovered in December of 2021 that she was still playing in the unsanctioned game at Eno Hall.
  • Carol and I played as partners a couple of times, but not at the SBC. She later played for several years with Maureen Denges. I liked Carol a lot, but she always claimed that she and Maureen were doing very badly whenever we were at the same table. Carol still lives in Simsbury, but she and Maureen stopped coming in 2019 or earlier.
  • In 2004 and for a year or two afterwards Maureen played with Pat Matthew. Pat was an extremely slow player, but they were both pretty good. I nearly lost it one time when Pat started harping on me to play faster on one hand. Pat died. I think that Maureen is still living in Granby.
  • Lila Englehart played a version of Schenken’s Big Club with Kay Hill. They also played at tournaments. I am pretty sure that Sue Rudd and I teamed up with them at least once. Lila was a large lady who drove a very large Buick SUV. She died at some point in the teens. Kay played more than Lila. For a while she partnered with Sue Rudd. She was still playing at the Hartford Bridge Club (HBC) when the pandemic caused it to close in March 2020. Kay was good at playing the cards, but her bidding was very old-school. She sometimes mentioned that she carried a gun. The story of my partnership with Sue is told here.
  • Mel Hirsch sometimes came up from Florida to play with his brother Jerry. More details of the games that I played with Jerry are provided here. Mel was a good player. He and Jerry often finished first.
  • I was surprised to see the names of Patty and Mark Howland. I did not remember them, but I played against Mark when he was assigned to play in an open game at the HBC in December 2021 with Jeanne Striefler. More about Jeanne can be read here.
  • Jerry Hudson (female) played regularly at the SBC with Jeanne Striefler. I think that she died a few years after I started playing. I remember only that she was astounded when I took off my game face and put on my silly tie at the Christmas party. She said, “You’re like a whole different person.”
  • Bob Nuckols‘ wife died the week before I started playing at the SBC. Everyone was talking about it. Bob returned to play with Bill Moody and a few other people including, for one game, me. He then played for a few years on a regular basis with Mary Lou Pech. I don’t remember too much about Bob except that his coffee mug had the black and gold colors of Purdue. He died in 2012. His obituary is here. Mary Lou was not a great player, but she was an awfully nice person. I remember that I made my first actual Endplay against her. She died in 2019. Here obituary is here.
  • I would have liked to get to know Joanna Overbaugh better. She only showed up a few times a year to play with Dorothy Clark. She spent the rest of her time on around-the-world cruises! I played with Dorothy once when Joanna was cruising. I wrote about it here. Dorothy was also one of the judges in the Hartford Courant’s story contest that I entered in 1989. That event is described here.
  • Helen Pawlowski was a very good player. I never played as her partner, but I got to know her pretty well when she took over as owner-director of the SBC. She was also the tournament manager for District 25 of the ACBL. In that role she found sites for our regional tournaments, negotiated the contracts, and dealt with the hotels in which we played. Soon after she took over the club in 2008 she began giving free classes before the games at Eno Hall. They were very popular. I always tried to show up early enough to listen to the lesson.
  • Laurie Robbins played a few times at the SBC, always with Paul Pearson. I don’t recall any occasion on which they finished below first. I never played as her partner, but I often played against her with almost uniformly bad results. In 2021 she is a teacher and director at the HBC. Much more about Paul can be read here.
  • David Rock is another exceptionally good player. He played in tournaments for several years with Sonja Smith. David was also very active in the administration of the district. He was vice-president of the New England Bridge Conference (NEBC) and was instrumental in setting up the smooth operation of the North American Bridge Championships held in Providence in 2014. David teamed up with Sally Kirtley to run the SBC in the teens. That period is described here. David moved to West Brookfield, MA. After that he only attended one game at the SBC.
  • Sonja played with Jean Seale at the SBC for many years. After Jean moved to Colorado Sonja came to only a few games at the SBC, usually playing with her son Steve. Much more about Sonja is posted here.
  • Shirley Schienman often played with her son, John Schienman. I never got to know Shirley—who always reminded me of Shirley Jones in her Partridge Family days—very well, but I had some good conversations with John. After John stopped coming to the SBC Shirley played with a variety of partners. Shirley died in 2017. Her obituary is here.
  • The North-South seats at table #1 at the SBC were usually occupied by Ellen and Tony Tabell. When the subject of Moysian fits came up during one hand, they told me that they had known Sonny Moyse in New York. They moved to Exeter, NH, and, for a time ran a bridge club in the area. Tony died in 2020. His obituary is here.
  • Claire Tanzer played almost every week with a few regular partners. I recall the details of only one conversation with her in December of 2009. It is recounted here.
  • Don Verchick and Nancy Campbell played a strong club system that they called “Precision”. C.C Wei would not have recognized it. They never opened 1NT! Nancy played with various partners at the HBC through 2020.
  • I was surprised to see that Mary Witt played at the SBC at least once with Tom Gerchman. Much more about Tom can be read here. Mary was the tournament coordinator for the Connecticut Bridge Association (CBA), which meant that she found sites, negotiated contracts, and brought the predealt boards to the sectional tournaments. Once she asked me to perform the last task for her. I was very flattered. Mary moved to Cary, NC. I have corresponded with her via email a few times.
  • I don’t have any clear recollections of any of the following players whose names appeared on at least one results sheet in 2004.
    • Robert and Ruby Cheah played together several times.
    • Roger Evarts played once with Don Verchick.
    • Dick and Joan Harris played together several times.
    • I should remember Clara Horn, who played with a number of partners, but I don’t.
    • I cannot place Maryann Joyce.
    • Jean Marecki played with Lila Englehart.
    • Alice Rowland played with Claire Tanzer.
    • Ruth Schwartz played with Marylou Pech. Ruth played quite a bit, but I cannot picture her. I discovered in December of 2021 that she was still playing in the unsanctioned game at Eno Hall.
    • Marcia and Norman Samuels played together.
    • Martha Stout played with Claire Tanzer: I get Martha and Alice Rowland mixed up.
    • Carl and Dorothy Suhre played together several times.
Russ is at the far right. Paula is by the door. I think that Nancy Campbell is seated near the wall.

Below are listed people who began to play at the SBC in 2005. Paula was still the director.

  • Fred Bird played regularly with Jean Little. They were married. After Fred died in 2011 Jean played at the SBC and the HBC with Max Horton and others. Jean died in 2018. Her obituary is here.
  • Rita Bowlby played at the SBC only once. I don’t remember her. Her partner that evening was Dick Benedict, whom I remember very well. Those recollections are posted here.
  • I am sure that I conversed with Jim McGarr several times, but I don’t remember any details. I can picture him pretty clearly. He died in 2015. His obituary is here.
  • Jay and Luetta Gould owned a residence in Torrington, CT. They rarely came to the SBC, but I remember their visits were in different years. Jay also ran a game in the Berkshires in the summer. In 2021 they appear to live in Delray Beach, FL.
  • Roger Holmes played with Dick Benedict for several weeks. Then they had a falling out. Dick once told me what they argued about, but I don’t remember.
  • I was surprised to see Ausra Geaski’s name on the results sheets. I played as her partner in one pairs event at one tournament in 2014. I have played against her innumerable times. She was president of the New England Bridge Conference (NEBC) when I became the district’s webmaster in 2013, and she chaired the B’s Needs committee that helped revitalize the tournaments.
  • I don’t have any clear recollections of any of the following players whose names appeared on at least one results sheet in 2005.
    • Frank and Jean Catudal played together several times..
    • I have no recollection of Ray and Sym Gallucci.
    • Jack Gensheimer played with Jim McGarr once;
    • Dick Kronk played with Bill Moody.
    • Barbara Lynyak played with Dorothy Clark.
    • Phyllis Martin also played with Dorothy Clark.
    • Dennis McVickers played with Roger Evarts.
    • Marcia Scarles played with Lila Englehart.
    • Lou Urban played with Bill Moody.
    • Rita Wolak played with Ausra Geaski.
On the left are Dorothy Clark and Shirley Schienman. On the right are Mary Witt and Helen. The other woman at their table might be Margie Garilli.

Below are listed people who began to play at the SBC in 2006. Paula was still the director.

  • Betty Angel played once with Mary Witt. Betty is still an active member of the HBC. I don’t think that she ever played at the SBC again.
  • Sue Gerchman was Tom’s mother. She played off-and-on with her son, who picked her up and drove her to the games. She also played once with her sister, whose first name was, I think, Benvenuta (Beni) Lostocco. I am pretty sure that they played in the same 299er game at the regional in Cromwell in which Dick Benedict and I played. A few years later, when I was playing with Tom, Sue died. I drove out to Avon for the wake. Some of Tom’s golfing friends were there, but I did not see any other bridge players. Beni died in 2014. Her obituary is here.
  • I don’t remember the occasion, but on one evening in 2005 Stan Kerry played with Bob Tellar at the SBC. Their better halves, Sandy Sobel and Carol Tellar also played together. I think that Bob and Carol played together a few times at the SBC. They also played at the HBC, Carol more often than Bob. Stan is best known as the director and owner of the West Hartford Bridge Club, which directly competed with the HBC. I played there a couple of times, but I did not enjoy it much. In 2012 Stan and Sandy went on the same Larry Cohen Regional-at-Sea Cruise that my wife Sue and I took. My journal for that trips is posted here. Sandy died in 2017. Her obituary can be found here.
  • Sally Kirtley made her debut at the SBC (at least to my knowledge) in 2005. We played together a few time, but not at the SBC. Sally became the director of the club in _____. She also directed in 2021, as was documented in considerable detail here.
  • Judy Larkin played fairly regularly with Lisa Audolensky for a number of months. They were both new to the game and eager to learn how to play better. They invited Dick Benedict over to coach them. In exchange they agreed to cook supper for him. Dick readily agreedJudy has been playing again in the reborn SBC of 2021.
  • I don’t have any clear recollections of any of the following players whose names appeared on at least one results sheet in 2006.
    • Norman Hargett played one night with Ruth Schwartz; I don’t remember him.
    • I have no memory of Matt Perry, who played with Roz Sternberg and Dick Benedict.
    • Robert Wise played with Russ Elmore. Much more about Roz, Dick, and Russ can be read here.
I am not sure of any of these people.

Below are listed people who began to play at the SBC in 2007. Paula may have started as the director, but early in the year Helen Pawlowski took control. Helen continued the policy of guaranteeing a partner for everyone. Eventually she quietly abandoned the $5 charge for membership and raised the table fee to $6. Attendance reached ten tables on several occasions.

  • Ida Coulter began playing with various partner, one of which was my wife Sue. Ida has been playing with Judy Larkin in the 2021 version of the club.
  • Trudi Brown usually played with her husband, Lou Brown. I played with Lou in the afternoon Open Pairs game at a CBA sectional in Hamden. His partner from the morning went home at lunch time, and my partner stood me up. We finished roughly in the middle, but we might have done better if Lou had not revoked even after I warned him that he was not following suit. Lou was serving his two-year term as president of the CBA at the time. He treated Trudi brutally whenever she made a mistake at the table. I asked Trudi whether I should say something to him about behavior that violated the ACBL’s zero-tolerance1 guidelines. She asked me not to and indicated that it was like water off of a duck’s back to her. Lou told me in 2010 that he could not attend my Life Master party because he had to call numbers in a bingo game in which his mother played. Trudi made Life Master in 2012 in a knockout at the regional tournament in Cromwell, CT. I played on the opposing team. My description of the match is posted here. Lou and Trudi moved to Delray Beach, FL, shortly thereafter.
  • Dan Finn played with Richard Finn, who was Dan’s brother (or maybe father) in one of the biggest games that we every had at the SBC. Dick and I played against the Finns at a card table that had been set up in the lobby. I also played with Dan at least twice, once at a tournament (described here) and once at the SBC.
  • I don’t have any clear recollections of any of the following players whose names appeared on at least one results sheet in 2007.
  • Dot Horton played with her husband Max. They were not great players, but they were very nice people. I remember that they took a river cruise in the south of France. They said that they had a great time. Dot once confided that when they started playing at Simsbury she was afraid of me. She died in 2015, but not from fright. Max continued to play with several other people at the SBC and the HBC. I almost got him to go to a tournament to play in a Pro-Am game once. Max died in 2021. I could not find an obituary.
  • Karen Largay played with Sheila Gillin at the SBC pretty often until the Largays moved to the Cape. They also played with their husbands occasionally, but the ladies were more serious about the game. Dick Benedict and I teamed up with them for tournaments a few times. I also played as Karen’s partner once at the Senior Regional on Cape Cod. I warned her before the first hand that if the opponents had bid and raised a major suit that I might bid any weak hand with a five-card suit. She forgot and raised my bid. The opponents doubled and we got a bad score.
  • I don’t know Steve Noble and his wife Chris Noble very well, but I have seen them at the HBC once in a while. I don’t know why they stopped coming to the SBC. I think that my wife Sue played with them in team events.
  • Art and Marylin Noll played together at the SBC at least once. Marylin was a good player and a semi-regular at the HBC, but I have not seen her since the pandemic hit.
  • Susan Pearson played with her husband Paul a few times.
  • Jan Potts played with a few different partners. In the late teens she was a frequent partner for Jan Rosow.
  • I had no recollection of Joan Brault playing at the SBC, but she attended several sessions. Her partner the first time was Beth Rotko, whom I do not remember at all. I played with Joan fairly often at the HBC. Those games are described here.
  • Arline Small played frequently at the HBC. She occasionally played with her husband Stuart at the SBC.
  • I don’t have any clear recollections of any of the following players whose names appeared on at least one results sheet in 2007.
    • Janice Boyko played with Ida.
    • Lillian Clark finished first out of ten pairs the evening that she played with Maryann Maikowski. They also finished at the top on at least one other occasion, but I don’t remember them.
    • Bill and Lenore Davis played together a few times.
    • Mary Fanette played with Helen once.
    • Art Marglies and Hannah Marglies played at least once, but don’t remember them.
    • Gladys McFetridge played with Dorothy Clark several times.
    • Margaret Milch played with Ida.
    • Rosa Shields played with Roz.
    • It seems like I should remember Donna Summer, but when I try to visualize her, all that I can see is the disco singer.
    • Barbara Steckler and June Rosenblatt don’t ring any bells either.
    • Elena Thompson played once with Carol Soucy.
    • Lisa Woods played once with Ida Coulter.
I think that the couple might be the Catudals. The woman on the right is Jeanne Striefler. Helen and Mary Witt are in the background.

Helen’s second year of directing was 2008. Listed below are some of the new players.

  • Michael Dworetsky played with Dan Finn and then with his wife Ellen. I played at many tournaments with Michael and as often as possible at the HBC. Our exploits together are assembled here.
  • Linda Kessleman played with Margie Garillli. Later Linda played pretty often with Mary Witt, Dick Benedict, and a few other people. I think that she was a real estate agent. Margie ran some games in the area and filled in as a director at the SBC. She played pretty often with Donna Lyons before the pandemic.
  • Sandy Macri played with someone else first, but eventually she teamed up with Karen Sterrett. I liked both of them a lot. I had to like Karen; she was a fellow Wolverine. They are both active members of the HBC.
  • Jeff Morris and Ron Saxon were both doctors. I went to Ron once when I had a build-up of wax in my ears. He was friends with Michael Dworetsky. Jeff sometimes played with his wife, who was very intense.
  • Jeff Oakes played with Sue Rudd. I don’t remember Jeff. Details about my long and continuing relationship with Sue are posted here.
  • Alden Stock played with Michael Dworetsky. He later played at the SBC with his wife Reba.
  • Louise Sunter played with Helen and Donna Lyons. I don’t remember Louise at all, but Donna is one of my favorite people in the world. I played with her a few times at the HBC and in a few tournaments. The details can be read here.
  • I don’t have any clear recollections of any of the following players whose names appeared on at least one results sheet in 2008.
    • Mark Johnson played once with Helen.
    • Susan Lewis played with Shirley.
    • Howard Mark and Sheila Mark played together, but just once.
This and the following photos were taken at the 2008 Christmas party with my Canon point-and-shoot camera. Shown are (left to right) Helen, Sally, Sheila Gillin, Karen Largay, and Jerry Hirsch.

Helen continued as owner-director in 2009. Listed below are some of the players who first played at the SBC that year.

  • Judy Goff played with Louise Alvord. Judy later became one of my wife Sue’s regular teammates. I think that they were partners at one or two tournaments.
  • I can hardly believe that Len Helfgott played at the SBC one night with Roz. He is a very good player. I played against him on Tuesday nights at the HBC a few times. I also recognized his name from reading a question that he submitted to the column in the Bridge Bulletin written by great Eric Kokish. On one hand that I played against Len I used “restricted choice”2 to determine which way to finesse. It worked, and Len remarked that bridge players know the play, but no one else would believe it.
  • I definitely remember Anne and Paul Melvin, but I don’t have any stories about them.
  • Barbara Perez played with her sister, Donna Lyons, a few times. Barbara lives in Mexico, but she asked me to keep her apprised of developments in bridge in the area.
  • Jan Rosow played with Joan Rusconi in their debut at the SBC. Jan became a Life Master in 2014. In 2021 she came to the club about once per month. Jan is also very active in the CBA. I don’t remember Joan playing at all in subsequent years, but I often saw her at the HBC.
  • I don’t have any clear recollections of any of the following players whose names appeared on at least one results sheet in 2009.
    • Beverly Lapioli and Sharon Smith played together one evening.
    • Peter Milliken played twice with Helen and once with a few others.
    • Doris Rothe played with Donna Lyons.
    • Mike Schwefel played with Jeff Morris.
    • Helene Wade and Lil Nolan played together.
This is Jerry Harrison.

Helen was still director in 2010. Listed below are some of the players who first played at the SBC that year.

  • Tim Largay played with his wife Karen. I think that he was more interested in golf than bridge.
  • Vivian Leshin played with Nancy Campbell. Vivian was a regular in the Tuesday night game at the HBC. She was the first person who warned me there that “Getting old is not for sissies.” I did not remember her playing in Simsbury. I was in attendance when she earned Silver Life Master at the Senior Regional in Hyannis. Her partner for that event was someone she had just met at the tournament’s partnership desk. I think that that was Vivian’s last tournament.
  • I don’t have any clear recollections of any of the following players whose names appeared on at least one results sheet in 2010.
    • Tina Cheffer played with Judy Goff.
    • Caroline Collins played with Ruth Schwartz.
    • Connie Fictner played with Louise Lapioli.
    • Kay Yaznac played with Tina Cheffer. I don’t remember them.

I have lost the records for 2011 and 2012. The lists continue with 2013 here.


1. In 1998 the ACBL instituted a policy designed to make for a friendlier and more pleasant environment at all levels of duplicate play. It is posted here.

2. The principle of restricted choice is explained pretty well in the Wikipedia article that is posted here.

2004 Getting Back into Bridge

Paul Pearson led me back tp the world’s greatest card game. Continue reading

Between 1970—-when I left college—and 2003 the game of bridge was not really part of my life. However, every so often I thought about it and wondered how the game might have evolved. At the same time I was frustrated with my lack of friends locally. In fact, I really only had one, Tom Corcoran, and he was quite busy with his job and family. I wanted the opportunity to be around people with whom I could have intelligent conversations. The people at TSI sort of qualified, but I was the boss; it was difficult to become true friends with the employees.

Enrico Fermi High School.

I had already been taking classes in Italian at Enfield High School. These classes were sponsored by the town’s Continuing Education department. I enjoyed that experience, which is described here.

Twice a year the Enfield school systems mailed to its residents a flyer that described the offerings for the upcoming term. In the one for the classes beginning in January of 2004 I noticed that two bridge classes were being offered—one for beginners and one for those who had already taken the beginning class. Of course, I had not taken the beginning class yet, but I signed up for the latter one anyway. Unlike the Italian classes, this one was at Enfield’s newer and more convenient high school, Enrico Fermi1, less than a mile from my house and right on my usual jogging route.

I found this old photo of Paul giving the class at Fermi. I don’t recognize the seated lady.

At the first class I met the instructor, Paul Pearson, who at the time was, I seem to remember, a Bronze Life Master. There were six or eight others in the class—all couples. None was as serious as I was at getting back into the game. Paul was surprised to learn that I had played a little duplicate bridge2 thirty or so years earlier. I think that I may have played in one team match in the dorm at Michigan, too. The other students in Paul’s class wanted to be able to play with their friends or relatives once or twice a year. One couple even remarked that they did not need to learn how to keep score because their friends always kept score.

Paul used a pamphlet-sized book that explained how to bid using five-card major suits (hearts and spades). When I was learning to play the game people began the process of bidding by selecting their “best” suit, a somewhat amorphous way of combining length (number of cards in the suit), strength (Ace=4; King=3; Queen=2; Jack-1), and shortness (singletons, doubletons, and voids). In the modern approach bidding a major suit guaranteed—with almost no exceptions—at least five of the suit that was named in the opening bid. A-K-Q-J was no good; 6-5-4-3-2 was fine. The strength of the hand was measured separately. Minor suits and notrump had different rules.

In the sixties this rock-crusher might have been opened 2. The standard approach in 2021 recommends 2.

When I had learned to play bridge back in the sixties two-level bids were reserved for very strong hands. By 2000 most players in North America used all of these bids (except 2) to describe hands that were too weak to open at the one-level, but featured six cards in the bid suit.

By the time that I graduated from college in 1970 I had learned a different system, the Big Club promulgated by Howard Schenken. In this system all strong hands were opened with the lowest possible bid, 1. I considered this approach vastly superior to what everyone else was playing, and I felt certain that by the twenty-first century everyone would be using something similar. I was wrong. The only major changes to the basic requirements for standard bidding were the two that Paul taught us—five-card majors and weak two bids.

I later came to understand that most of the other holes in the standard bidding system that I had recognized when I was in college had been addressed by specific conventions. Whereas in the sixties most players thrived with only a couple of conventions, in the twenty-first century there were dozens of widely used conventions to choose from and several hundred exotic ones.

Enfield’s luxurious senior center.

I cannot remember too many details of what Paul actually taught us in class. He recognized that it was unrealistic to expect any of us to be competent at the game after only a few hours of lessons. My most vivid memory of the classes occurred once when Paul was not even present in the room. For some reason we had gathered at the Enfield Senior Center that week to play a few hands. My partner was Paul’s wife, Sue, who was also a Life Master. I don’t remember the opponents. Four of us played at card table in a small elegant room that had a functioning fireplace.

Paul had set up a few hands for the class to play that evening. On one of them I was the declarer. I remember exclaiming to anyone who would listen, “There’s an Endplay3 here, and it looks like it will work!” Sure enough, I deliberately allowed one of the opponents to capture a trick and thereby won two in return.

If North opened 1, East could use 2NT to show diamonds and hearts.

Paul encouraged us to read the Courant‘s daily bridge column. I recall that one of the answers to a bidding question that I encountered there was a 2NT bid that I did not understand at all. I asked about it in class. Paul explained that it was a convention known as the Unusual Notrump that allowed the player to show two five-card suits with just one bid. I was delighted to learn that there was such a marvelous invention. I remember telling Paul that I did not think that I could stop myself from using it.

I recalled that I had practiced back in the sixties using a contraption called Autobridge, which was endorsed and marketed by Charles Goren himself. I still had it when I took the class. However, it did not age well. The play of the hands was still instructive, but even someone who knew as little as I did could tell that the recommended bidding was not optimal.

Paul knew about Autobridge. He had used it himself back in the sixties. He said that there were now computerized systems that allowed the user to specify which set of conventions were being used—both by the player and his computerized partner and by the robotics opponents.

BB 29 is now available!

Several of these computer games were available for purchase. The one that Paul recommended, Bridge Baron, included literally thousands of hands that had been played at actual tournaments. You could compare your performance with that of the rest of the field. What a great idea!

I promptly purchased a copy of Bridge Baron 15 and installed it on my laptop. I used it to improve both my bidding and my play. I played every hand from every tournament—some of them multiple times. I also practiced the use of many new conventions in a special set of programs in BB 15 designed for that purpose. The best part was that I could use it in in the otherwise wasted hours that I spent in airports and on airplanes.


After classes I usually stayed around to talk with Paul for a few minutes. After our very last session I informed him that I felt that I needed to play some hands on a regular basis. He asked me if I just “wanted to pitch cards”? If so, there was a weekly game at the Senior Center. I said that I really wanted to play in a serious duplicate game even though I knew that I would be overmatched at first.

Eno Hall in Simsbury.

Paul said that the best games were at the Hartford Bridge Club, but that might not be a feasible option until I had a regular partner. He recommended the weekly Wednesday evening game in Simsbury, CT, which was about a thirty minute drive from Enfield. He said that the club’s director, Paula Beauchamp, guaranteed a partner for everyone who attended. If an odd number of people showed up, she would participate as partner of one of the attendees. Paul provided me with contact information for her.

He also informed me that most of the best players in the Hartford area were either actuaries or computer programmers. I told him that I had worked as an actuary for two years, and I had been a software developer for more than twenty. He told me that he had been a programmer, too, but he had learned to program using Assembler, which, as I understood it, was only one step above programming with a soldering iron.

I eagerly got in touch with Paula via email. I told her that I would like to play in her game at the SBC, but I needed a partner. I also noted that I was at that time taking Italian classes on Wednesday evenings. That spurred her curiosity. My last class would be in early May, a few weeks away. She sent me directions to Eno Hall and advice about where to park. A description of my experience that first night is posted here.


For several years I wrote to Paul whenever I encountered a puzzling bridge situation. That often happened when I began playing in the much tougher Tuesday evening games at the HBC and even more often when I began attending tournaments. Paul always answered my emails, and he always gave me good advice. He also warned me about some players at the HBC whose advice should definitely not be heeded.

Paul told me about a few approaches to bidding that I did not know from my earlier encounters with the game. He introduced me to the difficult (but absolutely critical) concept of the LAW of total tricks4. I later dug up the details on my own. I also learned that the Rule of 20 had more or less supplanted simple point counts for evaluating hands for the purpose of opening the bidding.

Over the years I played a few times with Paul Pearson both at the SBC and at tournaments. I remember that we played together in a Swiss at a Connecticut Sectional. Our teammates were Michele Raviele and Joan Brault.

The last time that I played with Paul was—by far—the best. We played together in the Open Pairs game at the Fiesta Regional in Warwick, RI, on Friday, September 4, 2015. The event had three strats, labeled A, B, and C. We were a C team, which meant that our total masterpoints placed us roughly in the bottom third of the participants. Fifty-eight teams participated. We finished fifth overall and ahead of all of the players in both the B strat and the C strat. The pairs that finished ahead of us had at least ten times as many masterpoints as we did.

We earned 13.39 masterpoints for one day’s work! I remember only two of the hands. They were against very good players who had doubled our contract. I had to declare both of them, and I made the bid both times. I can’t say that I made any brilliant or heroic plays, but I did not choke either.

My wife Sue took this photo of Paul and me after our epic game.

Paul invited me to play with him in the equivalent pairs game in 2016, but I had already committed to play in a team event on the same day. Paul died later that year. His obituary is here. My wife Sue and I attended his funeral at the Congregational Church at the corner of South Road and Route 5 in Enfield.


While I was still taking Paul’s classes or shortly thereafter I went to Barnes and Noble looking for books to help me try to catch up. The selection wasn’t great, which surprised me. The first three books that I bought were 100 Winning Duplicate Tips by Ron Klinger, an expert from Australia and two books by William S. Root—one on bidding conventions and the other on declarer play. I bought many more books over the years. The ones that I liked the best are listed here.

A few years after Paul died I received a telephone call from Sue Pearson. She told me that she wanted to donate Paul’s collection of bridge books. She said that someone at the HBC claimed that they did not have any room for more books. I assured her that I would find a good home for them.

I drove over to Sue’s house and picked up a duffel bag full of books. Ones that interested me that I had not read I put in my own library. A few I gave to my wife. The books that I already had in my own collection I brought to the HBC and placed on the shelves without asking permission. There was plenty of room for them.


1. In 2010 Enfield decided to consolidate its two high schools into one. This may have saved the town money. However, what never made sense to me was why the surviving school was Enfield High. Fermi was much newer, much nicer, and much more centrally located.It also had plenty of land available for expansion. Enfield High, on the other hand, was right next to the river, rather dumpy, and very close to the worst part of town. The explanation may be contained in a report of toxic chemicals found on the land surrounding the building, as is detailed here.

2. There are many varieties of bridge. The form that swept the world in the twentieth century and caused many people to flunk out of college was rubber bridge. The North-South pair plays against the East-West pair. The cards are shuffled, dealt, and played. The same deck is used for many hands. Usually, two decks are used so that one can be shuffled (“made” in bridge lingo) while the other is dealt. The details are described here. Duplicate bridge attempts to remove as much of the chance elements. The North-South team’s results are compared with other North-South teams playing the same cards. More details can be read here.

3. The Endplay derives its name from the fact that it usually occurs near the end of the hand. A better name is Throw-in Play. The Wikipedia write-up of the technique is here.

4. A man named Jean-René Vernes determined by researching a large number of hands that when both sides have approximately equal strength the total number of tricks available when each side plays in its longest suit is roughly equal to the number of trumps in those two suits. So, if one side’s longest suit contains eight hearts, and the opposing side’s longest suit has nine spades, the LAW predicts that there are seventeen tricks in the hand. If the first side can make nine tricks with hearts as trump, the other side can expect to take eight tricks with spades as trump.

Of course the law does not always work. Larry Cohen’s seminal work, To Bid or Not to Bid, lists three negative adjustments and three positive adjustments that encompass most exceptions.

A commonly used corollary to the LAW asserts that in a competitive auction each side should bid to the combined number of trumps held by both partners. So, if North-South suspect that they have eight spades, they should bid to at least 2 as quickly as possible. Many people thing that the corollary is the LAW. However, unlike the LAW, the corollary is an artifact of the way that duplicate bridge is scored. It is much more successful when the side using it is not vulnerable.

1967-1969 Part 3B: The Guys of Allen Rumsey House

The guys whom I remember. Continue reading

From my sophomore year through my senior year I knew the name of every resident of Allen Rumsey House. In the lounge was a large glass-encased photo board with names and room numbers. I studied it often, and in those days I had a quick memory.

AR had about one hundred residents each year, and the annual turnover was at least 30 percent. So, more than three hundred guys lived there while I did. Fifty years later I have forgotten the names of a substantial portion of them. I blame the guys. If they had all become major league ballplayers, or if they had just done more outrageous things, I would probably remember more of them.

I have done fairly thorough Internet searches on all of the following guys, but I did not find anything substantive about many of them.

Staff: The Resident Director (RD) lived in a two-room suite on the first floor near the western door. There was a Resident Advisor (RA) on every floor. The other staff member lived in a two-room suite on the first floor near the eastern door. I am not sure whether this person was considered the Assistant Resident Director or the RA for the first floor.

Andy Something was the RD for my freshman year and, I think, for my sophomore year. My only interaction with him was at the bridge table in his suite. He was a graduate student in “Communication Science”, which was the name of U-M’s academic department that taught about computers.

Gritty

Jim Krogsrud, better known as “Gritty”, was the RA of the third floor during my freshman year. He also had a staff position during my sophomore year, but I am not sure which one. I think that he was RD for my last two years. He studied some kind of engineering. He was a very good athlete, and he competed for AR in a few sports. I don’t know where he got the nickname. He had it before I arrived.

In 2020 Tom Caughey wrote me that Gritty was a lawyer. In fact I learned that he was now retired from a long career as a public defender. He now lives in Freeland, MI, and works for the Saginaw-Tittabawassee Rivers Contamination Community Advisory Group.

John Dalby was the RA for the fourth floor for two or three years. During my senior year he lived in the first-floor suite on the east side. I think that he was also an engineer. He was the captain of the undefeated A volleyball team. He scouted for new team members from all the new arrivals every year and initiated practices as soon as he had recruited enough guys.

For at least two years Ken Nelson was probably my best friend at AR. He was one year older ahead of me. I think that he was president of the House Council either my freshman or sophomore year. During the summer before my junior year I was very surprised to receive an invitation to his wedding in Niles, MI. He had never mentioned an HTH (hometown honey). I did not attend the nuptials, but I sent a gift.

Blow-Up

In my junior year Ken lived in the eastern first-floor staff suite with his obviously pregnant wife. It was a deplorable situation. She was the only female in the dorm (maybe in all of West Quad!). She wasn’t a student. Ken still hung around with the rest of us pretty regularly, but she almost never came out of their suite. I don’t remember what they did for food. Maybe the suite had a kitchen.

After I saw the movie Blow-Up, I casually remarked in the lounge that, in my opinion, it was one of the best movies ever. Ken evidently respected my judgment and took his wife to see it. They both hated it.

I guess that it was not a good date flick.

Eventually Ken’s wife had a miscarriage. Ken graduated at the end of my junior year. I don’t remember seeing him at all when I was a senior. I was not the kind of friend who would have reached out to him.

CharlieD

Roommates: Charlie Delos was my roommate for the second half of freshman year and the entire sophomore year. In freshman year we were in room 315. The next year we moved to the center and across the hall. I think that our room number was 308.

Desi

We got along quite well until the day that I accidentally locked him out of the room when he was taking a shower. Charlie was quite angry, but he eventually got over it. I think that he had pretty much forgiven my thoughtlessness when I did it again, this time on purpose.

“Lucy, let me ‘splain.”

The two guys who lived across the hall from us were named Ryland Truax and Tom Cobb. They seemed to study all day and all night. When I left they were both sitting at their desks, and their door was open. As I departed I gave my key to Ryland. I told them to let Charlie get upset for a minute or two and then let him in. They agreed. They dutifully followed the first half of my instruction, but they ignored the part about opening the door for him.

CJ_F

The final straw for Charlie was when I scratched his Country Joe and the Fish album while he was home for a weekend. I apologized and bought him a new one, but he had had enough of me. He moved into an apartment for junior year. I could certainly understand why.

A biographical web page devoted to Charlie is available here.

Coxswain

My roommate for the last two years was a very good-natured guy from Pittsburgh named John Cruickshank. He was small enough to serve as coxswain (the guy who yells the stroke to the other guys but doesn’t actually row) on the crew team (or club or something).

He was a year younger than I was. In his freshman year he roomed with Ken Nelson, during which time he was awarded the name of Cramdrink or Crammy for short. This appellation was bestowed upon him because he was the recipient of far more shower parties (details below) than anyone else in the house. Crammy was addicted to puns, not clever or witty puns, just anything that sounded like what someone else said. He was always warned, but he just could not help himself from committing these execrable offenses. He never complained about the punishment. How could he? This was justice.

For some reason Crammy put up with me. I can’t remember any arguments or frustrating moments at all. We lived in the best non-staff room in AR, 109. It was a suite on the first floor in the corner bordering the passage into the courtyard on the south side. The beds and desks were in separate rooms.

I lost touch with Crammy when I went into the army. At some point in the eighties or nineties I received a phone call out of the blue from a Rumsey resident named, I think, Bob Ortman. He told me that Crammy had been shot and killed in a taxi in Pittsburgh. That is all that I know. I certainly hope that that information was wrong.

Officers: I am embarrassed to report that I remember few of the people with whom I worked. Part of this is due to the fact that the vice-president of the House Council had only one responsibility, to attend the meetings of the Interhouse Council (IHC), an organization hardly ever did anything noteworthy. The secretary took the minutes of the AR councils meetings. I did not need to work much with any of them. I interacted a lot with three guys.

KeithH

Keith Hartwell, who was one year younger than I was, served as treasurer during my junior year. He lived on the second floor with Ernie Brown. He always had a good handle on how much money we had and how much we still needed to spend. As a result we were able to give a refund to all of the residents at the end of the spring 1969 semester.

I remember the first sentence of my “interview” of Keith Hartwell in the Rumsey Roomers: “Svelte is the word for Keith Hartwell.” I also remember that Keith was a very smooth dancer. I found his Facebook page on the web.

Roger Warren was probably the best social chairman that AR ever had. How he managed to get Stockwell House to serve as sister house for the smallest male dorm on campus I will never understand. Roger was enthusiastic about everything the house did. He also played on the house’s football teams.

Mike Murphy was undoubtedly the best athletic chairman who ever lived in AR. I think that he was one year younger than I was, but He might have been two years younger. We could not have won the overall IM title in 1970 if he had not been our athletic chairman. Not only was he great at inspiring or, if necessary, shaming guys into participating in sports in which they did not excel. He also was such a good athlete that his direct role was important in many events. For example, the scores that he and Bob Carr together earned in the track meets bested the totals produced by most houses.

TD

Athletes: If any athletes resided in AR in my freshman year, I do not remember them. In my junior year two very famous football players, Thom Darden and Bill Taylor lived on the second floor. At AR they were called TD (or Thom) and BT (or Bill). I never heard anyone other that Bob Ufer call the latter Billy. Thom enjoyed an all-pro career as a defensive back with the Cleveland Browns. Bill had a lot of difficulties after he left U-M, but he evidently turned his life around.

BT

I had one significant interaction with them. The football players were apparently given tickets for the home games. Before one of those games TD and BT asked me if anyone was looking for tickets. I happened to know someone who was. I found him and brought him to their room.

Thom’s Wikipedia page is here. BT’s page is here.

At least three other football players stayed in AR that year. Dave Zuccarelli, a high-school all-america running back from Chicago, roomed with quarterback Kevin Casey on the first floor across from the lounge. I did not know Kevin well, but Dave hung around the lounge quite a bit when football season was over, and he played cards there quite a few times.

I was shocked to discover that Dave had died in 2000 at the age of 50. You can read about his career in and out of football here.

The fifth footballer was Bruce Elliott, the son of the legendary U-M quarterback Pete Elliott and nephew of U-M’s football coach Bump Elliott.

U-M football coach Bump Elliott and his nephew Bruce.
U-M football coach Bump Elliott and his nephew Bruce.

Bruce and Thom both played intramural basketball for AR. Thom played on the A team, and he was easily the best player in all of intramurals. We had some other good players, too. I am pretty sure that we won the championship that year.

Bruce was the best player on our B basketball team. We might have won at that level, too. I am not certain.

Jim_Burton

Jim Burton, the first pitcher to throw a no-hitter for U-M’s baseball team, also resided in AR for several years. I knew him quite well. He was one year younger than I was. He played on quite a few of the house’s athletic teams. He quarterbacked one of the house’s football teams. I actually was on the receiving end of several touchdown passes from him. I remember that he took an anatomy (or some such) course in which they dealt with cadavers. He complained that the obese ones were really gross to work with.

Jim’s quite detailed biography, which includes his death in 2013, can be read here.

In my senior year some freshman swimmers lived in AR. One of them was tall and sleek. The other guy had arms that hung down nearly to his knees. I don’t remember the name of either fellow.

A couple of hockey players from Canada also lived in AR my senior year. They kept to themselves and played a lot of darts and pinochle. My freshman year a hockey player who lived in one of the other houses in WQ caused a minor sensation in the cafeteria. He was a defenseman who was really thickly built. When he ate he bent his face down towards his plate and shoveled the food into his mouth at an incredible rate.

I remember one basketball player from Milwaukee who lived in AR. I don’t remember his name, but he spent a fair amount of time in the lounge. Sometimes he brought a basketball and worked on dribbling.

Others whom I remember by name: Frank Arundel Bell of Bethesda, MD, was two years behind me. As a freshman he approached me to ask for advice on an unusual conundrum that he faced. He was in Navy ROTC. They made him keep his shoes shined. He needed a cotton rag for that purpose. He asked whether I thought it was a “good idea” to cut a piece from the middle of one of the university’s sheets before turning it in.

I paused a moment, feeling some pride that he respected my perspicacity enough to elicit my opinion on the matter, and then replied in the negative. I suggested that he buy a 100 percent cotton tee shirt instead. I am not sure whether he took my advice, but he politely thanked me.

Frank never attended the commissioning ceremony.
Frank never attended the commissioning ceremony.

Frank was not a fashionista. He wore his Navy uniform when it was required. Otherwise, he always wore black trousers and a light blue or light green short-sleeve shirt. For him it was seldom cold enough for a coat.

Frank’s taste in food was equally simple. He would eat bread, peanut butter, mustard, hamburgers, and pickles. Occasionally, but not often, he would try something else, but he could easily go for a week without deviating from his five basic food groups.

Frank drank pickle juice. I often witnessed him drink a jar of pickle juice without stopping. Later he found out that he could earn money by betting strangers that he could drink the jar in five minutes. He could easily manage it.

He invented an imaginative approach to the sport of water ballooning. I documented it here.

Frank learned to play bridge in the AR lounge. He became quite a good card player. He is now a Sapphire Life Master in the American Contract Bridge League (ACBL). He currently lives in San Antonio. He contacted me when, as a bridge player in New England, he had received promotional materials about an upcoming bridge tournament that I had sent via email.

300 meld!
300 meld!

The Navy had paid Frank’s tuition for his freshman and sophomore years. After two years he was expected to commit to serve as an naval officer when he graduated. Frank declined. He had to sit and listen to various officers scream at him for being coward, a cheat, and a traitor to his country. Nevertheless, he persisted in his refusal. I heard a rumor that he paid a good part of his tuition in his last four semesters by playing pinochle for money with Canadian hockey players.

UV

Ernie Brown roomed with Keith Hartwell. He told me that the best thing about life was dreaming. That is why he loved to sleep. One day long after I graduated I got a phone call in Kansas City from him. He was going to be in town for some kind of event at Unity Village. I don’t remember why, but I was unable to meet up with him, and I then lost touch.

Incidentally, Ernie Brown was the first black guy that I ever made friends with. This occurred at the same time that my debate partner was Alexa Canady just after the explosive summer of 1968.

I did not know Bob Carr too well. He did not look like a great athlete, but he was very fast, and he was the first person whom I ever saw do a back flip.

Tom Caughey was one year younger than I was. He had a 4.0 grade point average in high school. His parents were very distraught when he got a B in freshman year. He roomed with Tom Rigles for—I think—three years. He liked to wear overalls. His mother tried to buy him a pair, but the salesman at the men’s store would not sell them to her because “that was not what the kids were wearing.”

He did not look like a Tom. I had a key to the picture board with names and faces of all of the residents. I replaced his name with a better one, Fred Moron (accent on the second syllable). i don’t know why; it just seemed appropriate.

He surprised me once by telling me that he had a slight crush on Celia Phelan, the president of Stockwell House.

Dr. Caughey’s degree was in Chemistry. He got his doctorate at Wisconsin. I am not surprised; he was smart, and he studied a lot. In 2020 he is VP of Product Development at Inrad Optics in NJ.

GSS

Tom Cobb roomed with Ryland Truax right next to Caughey and Rigles. Tom was into studying and the Gilbert and Sullivan Society. The only encounter that I remember with either of them was the second time that I locked Charlie Delos out of our room. The circumstances are detailed above.

Mets

Bruce Edwards came from Long Island. He was an important player on the B volleyball team that I captained. I remember him mostly as a big fan of the Mets, whom he called the “Amazin’s”. The Mets upset the Orioles in five games in 1969.

Ken Gluski ran against me for president of the House Council in the spring of 1968. I remember what he looked like, but I cannot recall anything else worth mentioning.

Riegle in the sixties.
Riegle in the sixties.

Thom Heinrich was a freshman from Flint when I was a senior. He loved politics, and he held strong conservative views. He had worked for Don Riegle’s congressional campaigns in 1966 and 1968, and he considered Riegle a wonderful man. He must have been crushed when Riegle switched parties a few years later.

For some reason Thom really got on my nerves. I think that he was attracted to power, and, since I was the president of AR, he always seemed to want to be around me. It got so annoying that I would occasionally climb out of my window to go to lunch rather than pass by the lounge where he was waiting for me. I called him “The Grippe”.

Larry Hull was, I think, three years younger than I am. Since most guys called him Larry Polack, I was not too surprised when, as we were walking south toward the IM Building, that his family name was not originally Hull. It was something that sounded like shuh HULL ski. The first four or five letters were consonants. I don’t remember much else except that he was a very friendly guy.

Type 3 CRS consists of levitra free sample an abrupt worsening of renal function which is caused when various chronic kidney diseases develop into the end stage. All these acquire able accoutrement on the beastly adjustment of every woman, abating the amore that may appear with menopause, adequate the all-embracing beastly action as able as artlessly acclimation the estrogen as able-bodied as the backdrop of the changeable arrangement of a lady. tadalafil tablets 20mg Vodafone has tonysplate.com cheap sildenafil claimed that Brolly would charge a battery of a smart device within underneath three hours by means of plugging into a USB port in the handle. Uncircumcised men harbor harmful bacteria over their penis foreskin which increases the risk of getting infections like HIV/AIDS. levitra price John LaPrelle was called Raz by everyone. He got this moniker from his penchant for razzle-dazzle plays in our pickup football games. He came to U-M in 1966, as I did, and he lived at AR for all four years. I think that he was an English major; nobody talked about classes. He certainly was not an engineer. I knew him as well as anybody did. He was, to put it mildly, a most unusual fellow.

Raz spent a lot of time in the lounge. He was a big guy, and his fashion taste ran to grunge. He loved to philosophize, and he was equally knowledgeable on all topics. This did not bother me, but it drove many guys crazy. I am not sure whether he played bridge with us or not. He certainly was not one of the best players. When we went to Blimpies he always ordered a triple cheese on a regular (not onion) role.

He attended high school in Chapel Hill, NC, and he knew James Taylor. I should say that he knew of James Taylor before anyone else in the house had heard of him. Wikipedia says that Sweet Baby James only spent one semester at Chapel Hill High, but he was born in 1948, which would put him in the right class. Raz also knew about Jerry Jeff Walker before anyone else did.

Checkmate

One day Raz got out the chess set that resided in the lounge. He challenged anyone to play him. We were playing cards; there were no takers. I was less interested than anyone. I had played a lot of chess when I was in high school, and I had to quit because it gave me insomnia. I had no interest in starting again.

Day after day Raz would talk about how good he was at chess. Finally, I got sick of it. I told him to get the set. We played one game. He was awful; the game only lasted about ten or fifteen minutes. He never brought it up again.

Raz attended most of the House Council meetings, but he never sought any office. He had rather strong opinions about many topics, and, when I was president I had to tell him to shut up a few times. He usually did.

Raz got me in trouble with my parents. My dad had called me at the dorm about something. I was not around, and Charlie must have been in another room and left our door open. Maybe there was a card game somewhere. At any rate Raz answered the phone in a voice in a deliberately effeminate voice. He might have said something rude, too.

I called my dad back as soon as I found out, but he and my mom were so upset that they somehow wangled a flight on my dad’s employer’s private plane to come visit me. The visit actually turned out pretty well. Not only did I get a free dinner at Win Schuler’s, they also brought all my records with them.

One day Raz let slip that his family was somehow involved with followers of Edgar Cayce. I had heard about the “sleeping prophet” who died in 1945, but I knew very little about him. I cannot remember Raz ever bringing this up again. He certainly never evangelized. I did not press him about it. I never quizzed people about their beliefs.

Raz7

A google search for “John LaPrelle Cayce” yielded a sizeable number of results. On the third item I found the picture shown at right on the website for “The Big House”. There was also a “Contact” email address. When I inquired at that address about Raz, I received an email from Sandy LaPrelle with Raz’s phone number and email address.

Raz responded to the email that I sent him about this project. He wrote that he was currently in rural Virginia. He had done a lot of things over the years including getting married, producing three brilliant children, and becoming a professor of psychology.

Martinov

Dave Martinov was also in the class of 1970, and he stayed in AR all four years. He is the guy who gave me the nickname KC, which quickly got abbreviated to Case. He was a rabid fan of all of the Chicago professional teams, especially the Blackhawks. He was tall and a very good athlete. He played every year on the football, basketball, and volleyball teams for AR at the A level.

Dave’s roommate, whose name I have forgotten (Vlchek?), was also a Blackhawks fan. They both watched all the hockey games in the game room, often wearing Blackhawks jerseys.

Dave has reportedly retired in the Tampa area.

Jack Matthews lived on the fourth floor when I was a freshman. He may have stayed another year or two. The fourth floor and my third floor were mortal enemies. We did not associate much with the fourth floor guys. I remember only that he really liked Motown music.

What I remember about Dave Nemerovski was that he had a relative in the band named the Long Island Sound, which I discussed here.

Bob Ortman was a quiet guy. I do not remember a lot about him. I think that he was one year behind me. Several decades back he phoned me to tell me about John Cruickshank. I have been unable to locate Bob on the Internet.

Rolf

Rolf Parta was a couple of years younger than I was. He hung out around the lounge pretty often. He might have played bridge with us. I am pretty sure that he was from Novi. When we lived in Plymouth (1974-77), we sometimes visited a pet store in Northville. The signs on the road gave the mileage to Novi, and when I saw them I would always think of Rolf.

Rolf’s LinkeIn page says that he is an “ex-manager, consultant & author/inventor” who lives in Bradenton, FL. His Facebook page is here.

Heikki Petaisto was an uper, which means that he came from Michigan’s Upper Peninsula. People in Ann Arbor called him Henry rather than his real name, which is Finnish. He was always smiling.

Somebody owned this game or one very like it. They also had players for every NHL team, even the Seals.
Somebody owned this game or one very like it. They also had players for every NHL team, even the Seals.

He played in the table hockey league that someone organized. I don’t remember which team he owned, but they ran roughshod over everyone, especially the California Golden Seals, the team in which I had a 50 percent ownership. I don’t remember what my franchise cost, but it was worth it just to watch and admire Heikki’s hell-bent-for-leather approach to the game. His hands were constantly moving from one lever to another, slamming his players forward and twisting them magically. I don’t know how he did it.

Heikki Petaisto is an uncommon name. I think that he ended up graduating from Michigan Tech and lives in Chino Valley, AZ in 2020.

Peter Petty was, I am pretty sure, the largest student on the U-M campous. He certainly was by far the largest whom I had seen before I attended a WWE wrestling match that featured Andre the Giant. Peter was over 6’10” tall, and he weighed at least 350 pounds. His biggest contribution to the AR athletic championship was his participation in wrestling. I think that most of his wins were forfeits when the opponent first caught sight of him. He made it to the finals, where he was scheduled to face another AR wrestler from Coldwater, MI, whose name I definitely should remember—he was a key player on the B volleyball team that I captained—but I don’t. I don’t think that they held the match.

Coke

Peter could grasp a coke machine, which in those days dispensed twelve-ounce bottles, with one hand on either side near the top. He could then rock it back to him a foot or two and then slam it back into the wall. This maneuver would often cause a few coins to appear in the coin return or some bottles to appear in the dispensing area. Occasionally, a bottle would break inside, thereby causing the machine to appear to be bleeding.

One year Peter attempted to participate in varsity football as a walk-on. My recollection is that he quit after a few days. He did not have the demeanor of the jocks who lived in AR.

Peter’s famous shower party is described here.

I found some evidence on the Internet that he has joined Andre in the land of departed giants, but it was not conclusive.

Phil

Phil Prygoski was a year older than I. I don’t remember him too well, but I think that he might have been president of the House Council when I was a freshman.

I remember that he said that his family name was changed to Prygoski to make it sound more American. The original version was pronounced shuh ZIT ski, and it started with “Prszcz”. Needless to say, everyone called him Phil Polack.

He became a professor of constitutional law at Western Michigan University. He died in 2019. His Wikipedia page is here.

John Reynolds was, I think, a year behind me. He lived on the other end of the first floor. All that I remember vividly about him was that he delighted in telling a story about an irate parking attendant who once told him, “Get back in dat ho dere!” He meant for John to park his car in the empty spot to which he was pointing.

Tom Rigles was from the ski town of Boyne City. A physics major, he roomed with Tom Caughey. He was a good friend. I “interviewed” him for the Rumsey Roomers. The main motivation was to provide an excuse for a cartoon of “Rigles’ ear” which was almost never visible beneath his mop of hair.

Tom was the slowest bridge player in the world. He also single-handedly ruined one poor female grad student’s study by taking forever to do relatively easy math problems. As a physics major he was expected (by her) to handle them swiftly.

VMM

Tom’s greatest contribution to the field of contemporary education was an adaptation of Mr. Spok’s Vulcan Mind Meld. Before an important test he would move his chair near the pillow side of his bed. He then placed the textbook open to the most difficult section. He took off his glasses and placed them on the chair between his pillow and the textbook. He aligned them carefully so that, while he was dreaming, he would be able to view the text through the glasses. He swore that it worked.

Tom once told me that if more people were like me, life would be a lot easier. This was one of the two or three nicest things anyone ever said about me.

I am not sure, but I think that Tom currently lives in Coeur D’Alene, ID.

Kurt

Kurt Scarbro lived on the third floor. The only thing that I remember clearly is that he thought that Myrna Loy was the most beautiful woman ever. I would certainly rank her in the top 1 or 2 percent.

Mryna

From references on the Internet I deduce that Kurt must currently live in Maryland. I think that his Facebook page is here.

Mark Skipper was one year behind me. He played on the AR tag football team, and he was a ferocious pass rusher. Nobody could stop him.

I remember that he was known as a real ladies’ man. I never witnessed this, but the legend was that he would spend time on State St. approaching various girls and asking them if they wanted to go out or something in more Saxon terms. Allegedly he seldom struck out and nearly always persuaded one of them to, in the words of Mick Jagger on the Ed Sullivan Show “spend some time together”.

In 2020 Mark is a lawyer in Ft. Lauderdale, FL.

Ron_Sign

I used to attend mass on Sundays at St. Mary’s with Ron Verleger. I never saw anyone else in AR go to church even once.

Ron, known in AR as Ron McDon, was very devoted to his father, who was a builder. After a short time at the big U, Ron met a lot of people who thought that his father’s conservative values were outdated. Ron seemed to have a hard time with this.

He graduated with a degree in business and set up his own contracting company. It still has a website, but it has not been updated in a while. It says that he is 55, but he did not wear diapers when he lived in AR. In 2020 he lives in Lawton, outside of Kalamazoo.

Dave Zuk was my age. He lived across the hall with Paul Stoner when we were freshmen. He stayed in AR for at least a few more years. He studied some kind of engineering, and he has been the Chief Engineer at Michigan Aerospace for fifteen years.

Unless my eyes played horrible tricks on me, he had two sets of two nipples, one over the other.

Memorable Guys; Forgotten Names: The level of bridge in AR was elevated by a couple of guys from Ypsilanti. The one who lived in AR had a Polish name that began with an L. I remembered it for a decade or more, but over the years it has been confused in my mind by Lewonczyk, the name of a family of friends, and Lewandowski, the name of both the guy who worked for Trump and a world-famous soccer player.

Schenken

The guy who lived in AR tried to get us to play some conventions, but nobody was really interested in taking the time to learn them. At least I wasn’t. I did buy a copy of Howard Schenken’s Big Club book. He talked a few of us into playing in the sanctioned game at the Union once or twice. He also played the piano pretty well.

The other guy from Ypsi was an equally good player. I think that he lived in South Quad, but he spent a great deal of time in our lounge.

I also remember another outsider named Mike Smith who dropped into the lounge to play cards from time to time. I am pretty sure that he belonged to a fraternity, maybe nearby Delta Upsilon. I am fairly certain that he was left-handed, but that is all that I remember.

I have drawn a complete blank on the name of a talented cartoonist who was a great help to me. I enlisted him for Rumsey Rumors. He did some wonderful illustrations that I always featured on the cover page.

We took an anthropology class together during my last semester. He went to all of the lectures, and he let me use his beautiful notes from the class to study for the final. This allowed me to pass a class that I almost never attended. I hope that I thanked him for saving my bacon.

A guy from Kentucky played basketball and other games with us. He was very accurate with a shot that he threw up with both hands from right next to his right ear.

When I was a freshman a guy from Texas, whom everyone naturally called Tex, sometimes ordered a medium-sized pizza delivered to the game room. He had no trouble finishing it by himself. I may have seen someone do something similar later, but at the time this astounded me.

I remember the guys who lived in 312 (next to Dave Zuk and Paul Stoner) during my freshman year. I already mentioned the one named Raphe (short for Raphael), who got a 4.0 in the first semester. His roommate was, if memory serves, very interested in trains, both real ones and models.

It surprises me that I have no recollection at all of the guys who lived in 313, the room next to the one that I lived in.

I remember a guy whose first name was Leonard. Everyone called him Filthy Leonard or Crazy Filth. I can picture him pretty clearly, but I have no solid memories. I have no recollection at all of how he got his nickname. These things just seemed to happen in the dorm.

FtL_FL

My last entry requires understanding of spring break in the sixties. Almost all universities scheduled a break from the classes for the same week. Students from all over the country gathered in places like Fort Lauderdale. U-M had no such break. To compensate our classes ended earlier than almost anyone else’s.

Occasionally people from U-M would try to participate in the fun anyway. None of my many close friends had a or car even access to a car. A guy whom I did not know very well and who lived on the second floor of AR evidently did. He got together three or four of his friends (no AR residents) to undertake the trip over a long weekend. Google maps indicates that it is a 1,348 miles from Ann Arbor to Fort Lauderdale. They drove in shifts, stopped only for food and gas, and made it in less than 24 hours. They evidently had a great time and returned to Ann Arbor the following Monday evening. I don’t know any specifics.

FtL_Traffic

The guy with the car enjoyed himself so much in Fort Lauderdale that he tried to assemble a group to go back with him the next weekend. There were no takers. So, he decided to make the trip by himself. He left on Thursday evening and returned to AR late on Monday.

When he reentered AR he did not immediately collapse of exhaustion, and he did not regale his fellow students with tales of fun and mischief in Florida. Instead, he stayed up all night and studied for a test scheduled for Tuesday. He kept his eyes open until just an hour or two before the test. Then he more or less passed out and slept for many hours.