[kenrexford]

Just saw on USBF website that Paul Soloway passed.

A true gentleman, he will be missed.

[helene_t]

A big loss.

[pclayton]

What a tragedy. He was such a gentleman to play against and such a fine player.

The bridge world has lost one of its greats today.

[jdonn]

The more people you talk to who knew him, the more times you hear the word "gentleman". Condolences.

[joshs]

I just read that Paul Soloway has passed away. He was a great player and a gentleman, always willing to give advice and encouragement. He will be missed.

[Walddk]

We have Paul Soloway in two threads now. He deserves it; a great ambassador for bridge he was. Our thoughts are with his family.

Roland

[keylime]

I am quite saddened over this news - he exemplified class and dignity. Truly, the game is less because of his passing now...

[mike777]

Very sad news, my prayers go out to his family and friends.

[sathyab]

He was such a constant fixture at the Nationals for so long. The Fall Nationals in SFO won't be the same without him.

[skjaeran]

Too bad - he was a really great player.

[skipper77]

A huge loss to our bridge community.

Truly a one-of-a-kind gentleman.

My heart goes out to his family & friends.

He will be sadly missed but honorably remembered.

RIP Paul.

[barmar]

At least he went out on top. Although he wasn't able to play in the Bermuda Bowl, he was on the winning team in the Spingold in the summer. And this month's Bridge Bulletin reported that he went over the 65,000 masterpoint, solidifying his lead as the all-time masterpoint leader (2nd place, Mike Passel, is over 6,000 masterpoints away, so it's likely to be 4-5 years before his record is broken).

[mike777]

Yesterday, I was told that he died from that superbug that is going around all the hospitals. A truly great loss of a great man.

[Trysalot]

A friend of mine forwarded this email to me the night after Paul Soloway died. It is an email letter from his wife. I in turn left in only the identity of the original senders to those who passed it on to many others and, because I don't like showing addresses to people from different groups in my directory who don't know each other, I sent it to one of my alternate email addresses and blind copied a bunch of bridge players. For posting it here I am just giving the letter itself which did not include an email address for sympathy notes.

Sent: Wednesday, November 07, 2007 7:07 PM
Subject: Fw: Fw: SAD NEWS - Paul Soloway passes on

----- Original Message -----
From: bj
To: ________; _______; ________; _______; ________; _______;
_______; ________; _______; ________; _______; ________;
_______; ________; _______; ________; _______; ________;
_______; ________; _______; ________; _______; ________;
_______; ________; _______; ________; _______; ________;
_______; ________; _______; ________; _______; ________;
_______; ________; _______; ________; _______; ________;


----- Original Message -----
From: APJ
To: Undisclosed-Recipient:;
Sent: Wednesday, November 07, 2007 2:01 PM
Subject: SAD NEWS - Paul Soloway passes on

You may already be aware of this, but the letter is very touching and very real.

I received this from a friend, who received it from a friend . and so I take part in sharing this news, however sad, with my bridge friends.
____________________________________

Paul passed away last night. I was hoping when I got up this morning, the last 48 days would be just a nightmare. That Paul and I could get back to packing for Shanghai. I mean, it had to be a nightmare didn't it?
Unfortunately no. Paul is really gone.

Yesterday, a CAT scan of his head showed massive irreversible brain damage. It was the result of the two cardiac arrests he sustained on Saturday The mind of the Paul Soloway we loved and who loved us, was probably gone then. He never felt a thing. Three separate doctors reviewed the films. I also discussed the situation with Paul's cousin, Mark, who is a surgeon. All agreed the situation was hopeless.

I immediately contacted Paul's sister. We put the telephone next to Paul's ear so she could say good bye. (Some doctors believe the patient can hear all the way until the end.)

Paul's absolute favorite nurse, Karen, and I dressed him in his favorite
sloppy blue sweats. I had the catheters and tubes removed that he hated but had tolerated for so long. Then I got him a grape popsicle -- his last and favorite fluid source before his swallowing problems developed. I took him into my arms and told him about a new antibiotic that was going to beat the infections. All Paul had to do was relax, go to sleep and let us do our work. When he woke up, all the pain would be gone and he would still have time to recover for the Reissinger.

Paul went very peaceably but not without a fight. His heart kept beating
and his blood pressure stayed up for a few minutes more than we expected. He never took another breath when we removed him from the ventilator. He never stressed. I just kept reminding him to relax and that I loved him and he had nothing to worry about because Karen his favorite nurse and I were there. Paul left his mortal pains behind and moved on at 7:28 pm. He looked just like he was sleeping at the bridge table ... with his mouth slightly open and eyes half shut. It was as if he was resting between hands.

I need to see what he specified in his will. Paul definitely opposed a
memorial service. I don't think he precluded a "celebration of life."

Paul has requested cremation.

A good friend of ours sent me the following quotation. I have no idea if it is accurate but it certainly fits the situation: "It is important to
remember his deeds, for in the future, those who were not privileged to know him will doubt such a man every existed. (Einstein's comments on the death of Gandhi)

I feel so lost right now. Like my best friend is moving on and we aren't
going to be best friends any more. My best friend who was so honest and strong, so loyal to his friends, never a gossip, a sportsman at all costs, a fierce competitor, the ultimate team player yet in so many ways an innocent in the world around him.

I'll have more details later. We may have a memorial service for him in San Francisco. I'm sure he would want donations to the NW Kidney Center in lieu of flowers. I'll have the address later.

Thanks to everyone for caring about this remarkable human being.

Pam

[PeterGill]

I met Paul Soloway only once, but to me what distinguished him from many of the world's greatest players was that even in just that one brief meeting, to me he set a shining example of just how a bridge great should behave.

It was the 1997 Cavendish in Las Vegas, when I was an unknown Aussie visitor. After each short match, outside the playing room players asked each other what they'd done on the most interesting hands, and Paul was one of the few who took the time and effort to ask me what we'd done, treating us Aussies as equals to the many great players.

Once he came up to me and said that everyone he'd asked had gone done in 3NT on Bd xx, as had his partner. "I made 3NT," I piped up, "aided by misdefence." Lesser humans would have left it at that - misdefence is not very interesting - but being Paul, he asked how I'd played it. Well, I won the opening lead and, with xxx in dummy opposite AJxx and nine tricks looking far away, I decided to play ace and another diamond, for something to do. "Nobody else did that," Paul said, and I beamed.

I went through my play. Paul pointed out that quite apart from the misdefence, the defence could have broken up the squeeze which I was setting up, which I thought was interesting. "However, if you duck a diamond at Trick 2 and duck another diamond next time you're on play, keeping a major tenace in diamonds because RHO had Qxxx, the hand can genuinely be made, because the key entry to dummy is retained." 'Wow', I said, 'it's so simple yet none of us thought of playing it that way.' Such was his love of the game that Paul raced off to check if anyone in the whole field had found the winning play. Later he told me that nobody had. For the first time in my life, I felt like a participant in the inner sanctum of bridge at the very top.

The actual hand is lost in the mists of time, but the fact that Paul Soloway chatted to me, and was genuinely interested in how I'd played a hand, was so exciting.

Those were the days before Deep Finesse when we never knew if contracts had been makeable, adding to the mystery and neverending magic of bridge, which Paul seemed to appreciate more than most.

For me, that was a magic moment, a bit like last weekend when I was commentating on BBO on Versace - Lauria in the ECC Qualifying match against the Poznan team, and Michael Rosenberg was privately sending me some astonishing insight on Bd 19, which I was able to present to the audience. Such a buzz. The super-experts are actually real people, prepared to share their thoughts with the rest of us.

The following year at the World Championships in Lille, when a kid aged about 13 named Justin Lall (playing in the side event) said to me something like: "How come you, who are playing in the Final of the World Pairs, are chatting to me between rounds when I'm just a kid? I've been to lots of fairly big American tournaments and none of the top American players ever chats to me, except my dad." My reply was that I was coming only 58th in that Final ... I'm so happy that Justin, via his website and posts, has the same common touch that Paul Soloway had.

Another example was that when Joe Grue and Crutis Cheek won their first Reisinger a year ago, only about 20 people waited around for the trophy to be presented to the winners in the playing area. One such person, who waited for 30 minutes with little to do, was Bob Hamman, who went up to the winners and said something to them straight after the presentation. It's no wonder that Hemant Lall
(via a post by Justin) in this Forum commented after the Spingold that the team dynamic of team Nickell was better than any other team he'd ever played in.
A team with humanity is too classy for a team without.

Peter Gill
Sydney Australia

[hrothgar]

Thanks for posting this.

Its the best of the Obituaries that I've seen.

[cjames]

Great post Peter

[pclayton]

If there's some unused ad space on the BBO adserver, someone please provide a link to Peter's post.

[helene_t]

Yes, good idea Phil.