DR. JOHN FISHER, A REALLY CUTE GUY
One of the most likeable human beings to ever grace the Texas Bridge scene was Dr. John Fisher, of Dallas. Everyone loved him. He was the town doctor and everyone came to him with their aches, pains and bridge hands. We just learned of his passing today after a brief illness. He was a terrific performer with the devil up his sleeve and was so much fun to be around (both at and around the bridge and examining tables as well). In Judy’s short eighteen month stay in Dallas, she played in the Wednesday Country Club duplicates with Marion Weed, Fran Beard and of course John Fisher. Now they have joined the other LONE STAR SUPERSTARS UP ABOVE — A PRETTY SCARY BUNCH TO MESS WITH!!
John, thanks for all you contributed to our local scene as a champion bridge aficionado and a remarkable human being. We shall miss you.
Bobby and Judy Wolff
Subscribe to our feed
Bridge-related
While grieving over the death of John Fisher, I would like to recall the happier times of our rather long association. Long before I moved to Dallas to join the Aces in early 1968 John and I had played a tremendous number of sessions, mostly as teammates, but sometimes as partners. From that time till his retirement from his medical practice in 1993 I saw John often, many times at his office checking out some minor medical malfunctions and always as his lead patient at about 845AM. I never arrived for that appointment until 9AM because John’s time between 845 and 915 was spent talking to Betty Ann Kennedy in Shreveport, being brought up to date with all that was going on in the always entertaining bridge world. When I would leave his office I always could recall the bridge gossip, but almost never remembered what his medical advice had been. Who can ever accuse me of not knowing what was important?
Another story worth telling, similar to Elaine in the off the charts popular sit com Seinfeld, who used to discuss her men in terms of who was and who was not sponge worthy, I’ll let the reader decide. John, Charlie (Garp) Gabriel (from Ft. Worth then, but later moved to Dallas and bought a house next door to John) and I would play in a number of Texas Sectionals and Regionals in Texas during the late 1950’s and middle 1960’s. During pair games, the three of us would usually have sponge worthy partners and each of us would be sitting at Table 1 NS, the highest section seed accorded to the most popular and experienced players. All three of us sat North and, while no doubt, against ACBL rules, would at round’s end compare stories, results, and most of all, laughs. Around the middle of the game all three of us individually, after returning to our tables, picked up, s. KQJ9xxx, H, AQJxxx, d, void, c, void. I looked around to my left and bellowed out “GARP”, an expression which was invented and coined by Charlie, but was so graphic and identifiable that, especially if screamed out in a guttural manner, could wake the dead. Whereupon I heard the same term back at me from both Charlie and John. People around started laughing almost uncontollably, not because they were on to our game, but because the whole scene was so informal and chaotic, but always highly enjoyable.
As Archie Bunker might have surmised, “Those were the days, my friend”. I wish they would never have ended, but sadly, with the loss of our lead hero, they just have.
Thank you Bobby. I printed this out and shared it with the Minister that did John’s service. He quoted you at the service and it was very special. We will all miss this great man.
Another one. Rats.
So sorry to hear about John’s passing. He was a fine bridge player and an exceptional gentleman. I believe we were all privileged to know him.
I have many fond memories of John. One in particular was from a Dallas regional back in the 1970’s. John’s team was Bobby Wolff, Jim Jacoby, Charlie Weed, and they showed up right at game time as the 31st team In those days, the directors didn’t know how to handle an odd number of teams in a Swiss event. To get a 32nd team the directors quickly recruited two of the wives, Betsy Wolff and Marion Weed along with Fran Beard and me. Only two of the women could play each session, so I and my as yet undetermined partner would be the anchor pair.
And there he sat. Ralph Kaufman a part time director from Kansas with 400 master points and a demeanor reminiscent of the late great actor Jim Nabors. We lost the first match which revealed some minor flaws in Ralph’s game – he could not defend and he could not play the dummy. My simple remedy was thereafter to try to play all the hands. If they were going to beat me, they would have to double me.
It worked. “Gollee”, said Ralph, “You always seemed to know what I had in my hand.” “Quiet”, I replied, “From now on I’ll do the bidding for both of us.” (apologies to Rick and Ilsa)
We won the next five matches. Match six we played John and Charlie. It wasn’t even close. 26-0 for our team. Sadly, we lost the championship match when the opponents bid a 50-50 grand on the last board. At least it was against friends, Schutze and his motley crew from Austin.
I HAVE KNOWN BETTY KENNEDY SINCE SHE WAS THREE YEARS OF AGE. AT SEVEN, SHE MADE A SET OF PLAYING CARDS OUT OF PAPER CUT TO THE SIZE OF REGULAR CARDS, AND TAUGHT ME HOW TO PLAY ALL KINDS OF FUN CARD GAMES…SHE HAD A KNACK OF REMEMBER NUMBERS AND CARDS. LATER IN LIFE, I BECAME A LIBRARIAN, AND, TO MY SURPRISE, AFTER RETIREMENT OF 25 YEARS, I CAN GO INTO ANY LIBRARY ANYWHERE AND ASK THE LIBRARIAN TO NAME A TOPIC, AND I WILL GIVE THE DEWEY DECIMAL NUMBER TO SEVEN DIGITS. THIS IS HER BROTHER, NELSON…GENES AND ENVIRONMENT PLAY HAND IN HAND.
BETTY ANN KELLEY KENNEDY OF SHREVEPORT IS WELL LOVED BY MANY, MANY PEOPLE ALL OVER THE WORLD.