The San Antonio Bridge League, Unit 172,

RICH LAMPMAN

Some refer to Rich Lampman as the historian of Unit 172. Since his retirement in 1993 as a career officer in the Air Force, this San Antonio native has been actively involved in local bridge. He served on the Board of Directors for Unit 172 until he became a manager/director at the Alamo Bridge Club. Then, to keep bridge alive in San Antonio, Rich subsequently purchased the Club and was involved from 1995 to 2015. Rich recognized that both duplicate and rubber bridge should be offered at his Club in order to involve as many people as possible in the game. He hosted numerous Unit games and served as the Chairman of Sectionals over the years. For both his organizational skills and friendliness to all players, Rich was drafted to be Chairman of the Registration/Welcoming Committee for the 2019 4th of July Regional. Now, Rich is again an elected member of the Unit’s Board of Directors, serving as Vice-President. Rich plays each month with 10 different players of various abilities from novice to advanced. Recognition for Rich’s long history of service and contributions to the bridge community is long over-due! Unit 172 is pleased to nominate him for the Texas Star Award.

It pleases the board of Unit 174 to honor Dianna Gittelman with the District 16 Star Award for her continuous volunteerism in promoting bridge in our community. A Sapphire Life Master, Dianna was taught how to play bridge by her mom at the age of 14. Unit 174 is so lucky her mom brought her into “our game”, for she has certainly given back so much more to further Unit activities as a result.

In addition to serving two 3-year terms on our Unit 174 board, her willingness to say “yes” to many other requests have placed her as Partnership Chair, Hospitality Chair, Tournament Chair and Nomination Committee Chair at various times over the past 30 or so years (and more than once for several). At our annual Lone Star Regional, thanks to Dianna’s efforts in providing a Restaurant Guide with benefits, many attendees have either won a door prize or secured a discount while eating out in Houston. For the 1971, 2002 and 2009 NABC’s held in Houston, Dianna volunteered for each in a variety of capacities, including serving as Assistant to the Partnership Chair in 2009.

“Growing up in Amarillo, there was often a snow storm that would keep people from going to work....there were enough bridge players for 5 tables of bridge within six blocks our house. On a snowy day everyone was home bound, but they could walk to our house and my parents would host teams games. Thus, began my interest in bridge.”

Helping new players learn to play bridge via participating in initiatives such as Learn Bridge for a Day or mentoring an intermediate player (and not only at mentor/mentee events) over the last 30 years is just another way Dianna has given her time to further support bridge in our Unit. Speaking of giving, not only does Dianna donate her services to help raise funds for the Alzheimer’s Association during “The Longest Day”, she and her husband, Joe, have anonymously underwritten several events to help ensure their success when funds were not available.

By way of event planning, Dianna’s years of experience in this area certainly comes out when she chairs or gets passionate about an event. For example, all attending our November 2019 Galveston Sectional has Dianna to thank for negotiating our securing Moody Gardens and planning all the wonderful evening entertainment!

Mary Jane McGinnis is Dallas' own Jill of all trades. If it's there to do, she had done it with enthusiasm and Southern charm. She has served several terms on the board of directors, has written our Score Card article for years and chaired several sectional tournaments. If you want a great party, MJ is your go-to person. She has been at the helm of the unit Christmas party and has made it an event – from the wonderful food, to the exciting door prizes and to her own specially-designed contribution boxes – she does it all.

Mary Jane is our steel magnolia and we are proud to honor her with this year's Texas Star Award.

Kay Jones is the 2019 Texas Star Award winner for Unit 183. We don’t have the space to list all of Kay’s accomplishments, so we will keep it short.

Kay has served the Unit for decades, in numerous official and unofficial capacities: Unit President, Board member, committee chair, game director, mentor and friend to all who meet her. She knows how to do everything, does whatever needs doing, and does it all with unflappable grace and charm.

Kay puts a smile on everyone’s face. We are all lucky to be a part of her life.

DeDe is a most valuable member of our club. She learned to play bridge in a newcomer’s club when she and her family moved to Portland, Texas. After a few years of "party bridge" she learned duplicate. But soon she took off for about 15 years to become involved with her children and as a Senior V.P. in banking.

After her children were in college, she became reacquainted with bridge. She loves the bridge family in Corpus Christi and is always eager to volunteer for any needed jobs. Most importantly DeDe is now our Treasurer which is an important job and she does this extremely well. She is looking forward to making life master which should be soon as she is becoming a very good player. DeDe is in the opinion of our Board certainly deserving of the District 16 Star Award.

Dee Henson Payne grew up watching her mother and father play bridge. She learned from them and from neighbors after she married. She played in groups with her mother and couples groups with her husband Joe. She began playing for masterpoints with her good friend Maggie Brossette. The duplicate club in Orange was playing at the old community center with players coming over from Lake Charles and Beaumont. They could reach a table count of 15 at times. The community center was torn down and the Orange Club played at the Methodist church for a short time. They were playing at the old Salk Elementary school building when Hurricanes Rita and Ike hit our part of the world. The club's table count went down from 9 to 2 and they could no longer afford the rent at the school. Dee and her bridge partner, Ruby Collins, stepped in to be co-club managers. A free place to play was found and they worked to rebuild the membership. Having a party day once a month was started for players to reach out in the community and invite new players. The table count increased back up to 8. Then Hurricane Harvey flooded the Church of Christ building and Dee helped get the club moved to another building owned by the church. The club lost players again and now has a table count of 6.

Dee is the person club members stay in touch with. She is the one they call to help them find a partner. She takes care of the financial business, gets the supplies, and works with the director to keep things going. She helps lead the way in supporting Unit 201, their tournaments and special games.

Dee's bridge family legacy continues as a daughter, granddaughter, and 17 year old great-granddaughter all play bridge

Pam Montross LaShelle

I was born in Iowa to a big family that loved to play games through the cold winter. I quickly learned to enjoy all games and particularly games with cards. Fan Tan, Crazy Eights, High Card Takes It to start and then Hearts, Uno, Whist and then my parents taught us all to play bridge. I loved them all, but I loved bridge the most!

After graduating from Winterset High School (Iowa) I went to Greeley, Colorado to Colorado State College and got my Elementary Education Degree. During the summer of my Sophomore year I was hit by a bus in Chicago and was told I most likely would not walk again. I had a wonderful doctor and stayed out of school for about 6 months to recover and was able to walk. During that 6 months I lived at home again and got in lots of practice with cards!

I met my husband in Greeley the following year, married and we moved to Omaha, Nebraska where he went to law school and I taught First Grade for several years. During that time I decided to try duplicate and was hooked!! The bridge group in Omaha was huge and the night games were where all the really great players played. I met Claire Passer who also liked to play and she and I took a trip to Springfield, Missouri and won the open pairs. That's all the gold I needed to become Life Master.

The best was yet to come when I had my two daughters and moved into an old farmhouse up on a hill on an acre. It was a dream come true. Life was good and I had already started some service work by being in a Federated Woman's Club and serving as President.

One day out of the blue my husband came home and said he had accepted a job in Texas! How our lives changed after that. We had to sell our dream home and move into a rent house in Anderson Mill area. It was during the boom of the 1980's and housing was scarce. The rent house was full of roaches! The girls were 5 and 7 when we moved . We decided to build a house and it became our new dream house. Our realtor became one of my best friends and I decided to go into real estate with her company! So began a career that I still enjoy, selling properties and working with people. During this time I decided to join a Federated Club in Round Rock where we were building our house. I also decided to do other service work and drove

Meal on Wheels for 7 years. I was known as the Muffin lady as I would bake muffins every Monday and take them with the meals. I did not play at the Austin Bridge Club because of a bad encounter with some players that were unfriendly and because the location was an old Quonset hut located in a poor area of town. I did not play for 20 years after we moved to the Austin area.

In 2001 my husband passed away. In 2004 I met a gentleman who came into my real estate office. He was recently divorced and he mentioned that he played bridge. He and I dated for a couple of years, broke up and 14 years later started dating again!

I started playing bridge at the Austin Club in 2004. After that, I started teaching, directing and playing on a regular basis and enjoying it all . While I kept busy with bridge and real estate, I also belonged to the Unit Board and served as president and tried to help out as much as I could with the club. I now just direct a Limited group on Wednesdays with a brief lesson before the game. So each week they get a joke, a lesson and some of my cooking! I think they are each worth lots of effort. The pride I feel from teaching them and seeing them advance is unmeasurable.

Dr. Shirley Ann Davenport

Shirley Davenport was born in Sabinal Texas and lived the first few years in Utopia Texas. After that she lived in various places all over the state. She attended San Marcos High School and has a B.S. in Education, M.B.A. and M.S. in Accounting. She also has a Ph.d in Business, Majored in Accounting with a Minor in Finance. Shirley work for I.B.M. for 18 years and retired as a Systems Representative Manager. Later she became an Associate Professor of Accounting at the University of Texas of the Permian Basin and is now retired from that position. Currently spends her time as a Mary Kay Independent Beauty Consultant for the Permian Basin Area. Shirley is a graduate of the Permian Basin Master Gardeners Class of 2017 and other hobbies include playing Duplicate Bridge, reading and loves cats. Shirley loves bridge, so much that she became a Certified ACBL Bridge Instructor and a Game Director for the Caprock Bridge Club in Odessa Texas. The year was 1977 when she started playing bridge in Houston Texas with friends who played Duplicate Bridge. She became more serious in Duplicate Bridge just before she moved from Lubbock Texas to Odessa Texas in 2012. She became a a Life Master in 2017 and is currently a Bronze Life Master. She has taught Bridge Classes to newcomers, invited party bridge player to try Duplicate and make herself available to play and advises others how to play better. Shirley is one of the nicest ladies you will meet in the Permian Basin, but a formidable bridge opponent. Unit 209 of the Permian Basin is proud to nominate Dr. Shirley Ann Davenport for the District 16 Star Award.

Nelda Avent is Unit 225’s Texas Star Award recipient for 2019. Nelda exemplifies the requirement of the Texas Star Award as she has worn many hats as a Unit volunteer and past Unit President. She has worked tirelessly at the Unit level to promote bridge and to further Unit activities. Nelda has certainly made significant contributions to Unit 225 including:

• Serving as Unit President for 5 years,

• Teaching novice classes at the Unit game

• Making a presentation to Tyler City Council regarding freezing Unit 225’s rent at the Senior Citizen Building

• Co-Chair of Tournament of Roses several times

• Partnership Chair for 2019 Tournament of Stars

Nelda is always a terrific ambassador for bridge and willing to help out and support less experienced players. Congrats to Nelda on this well deserved award!

Lynn’s contributions to not only Unit 233 but also District 16 as a whole is evident at every level: She has undertaken and succeeded at two of the most demanding jobs---Unit Secretary and Unit Representative to the District 16 board. So far as I know, no one has ever held these two positions at the same time since both of them might be considered a full time commitment.

In fact, many of us refer to her volunteer bridge activities as her “full time job.” Hardly a day goes by that she is not dealing with issues as varied as tournament arrangements, special STaC games, keeping local club managers and directors “in the loop,” or communicating with District 16 officers either asking questions or giving feedback. When attending the Houston Regional last February with Lynn, I noticed the tremendous rapport she had with the District leadership and representatives. I noticed so many casual as well as official conversations both before and after the quarterly meeting. During the tournament when I played at the table with any of these same people and upon their hearing that I was from Temple, they always talked about her work ethic, eagerness to learn, and her giving important feedback both from the unit and to the unit. Many said they had several phone calls and e-mails a week with her to discuss specific issues. She is, in short, a wonderful representative from Unit 233 both in responsibility and enthusiasm.

As Secretary of the Unit, she has to “juggle so many balls” in the air at the same time. Just reading her minutes of Board Meetings and Unit activities makes me tired. But, perhaps, it is her demeanor at the bridge table that reinforces to all of us what it means to be a true ambassador of the game. Anyone who has played with her will want to come back to the game, She knows how to concentrate, and she knows how to laugh; she knows how to admit mistakes, and she knows how to overlook those of others. She very seldom mentions her important role in her church and in working with the youth, but this same “stewardship” mentality is evident in her secular life in our bridge world.

Finally, many of us tend to take for granted her quarterly “road trips” to the District meetings. These four week-ends a year as well as the formidable driving over our Texas highways are not activities we should take lightly! These are just two of the more obvious unselfish contributions Lynn continues to make to all of our lives.