Bill Collis's Journey to becoming an ACBL Gold Life Master

I recently heard through the grapevine that one of our bridge friends, Bill Collis from Lexington Kentucky had become a Gold Life Master. He’d been working on this for some time, and I thought his story would make a great article. Read on if you’d like to find out more about Bill’s interesting life and his journey to becoming an ACBL Gold Life Master.

Bill was born and raised in Winchester Kentucky in the 1930s, where he lived above the family restaurant owned by his Greek immigrant parents. His early life instilled the values of hard work and determination, which served as a foundation for him becoming an eye surgeon.

He had a long and illustrious career, with many highlights; to name a few he founded the Kentucky Eye Institute, taught Ophthalmology at the Harvard Medical School and was as a Clinical Professor at the University of Kentucky. Throughout his working life he spent time in the metropolitan medical centers of Boston, Washington, D.C., Cleveland and San Francisco, but finally returned to Lexington K.Y., where he still lives.

Bill’s been married for over 50 years to the love of his life Connie. They make a formidable partnership in life, but sensibly Connie and Bill don’t partner at bridge. Perhaps that’s one of the reasons why they’re still going strong!

Bill started playing bridge in 2001, mentioning that he’d barely played three hands of bridge before the age of 63. Just like so many others, he was looking for something to focus on post retirement. He didn’t just want a past-time, he wanted something to really challenge him. He was considering two options: golf and bridge. Two pursuits that require real application and dedication if you want to get good. He was up for the challenge.

Starting with golf, he went to the local driving range, grabbed a bucket, and began to swing. Almost immediately a golf pro came up to him and asked him how long he’d been playing. Bill laughed and replied, “it’s my first time”! The pro told him he was a natural and that he should take up lessons. Later, whilst on vacation Bill visited another couple of driving ranges and again was approached by the golf pros, using the same tactic, both saying pretty much the same thing. Bill had a good laugh over this and decided to go with bridge.

When he started playing bridge, Bill applied himself and improved fast. He quickly reached 1000 points, but things slowed down when he lost his bridge partner as a result of spending half the year in his and Connie's new winter home in Juno Beach, Florida. However, once he learned that he was now living less than 2 miles from Marty Bergen, the internationally famous player, writer and teacher, Bill decided to start up again and took group lessons from him. He progressed and continued to advance in his play. 

A few years later on a trip to Victoria Island, Bill played bridge and formed a strong friendship with ACBL Tournament Director, Merv Adey, who ran the local bridge club. Later he started both taking lessons and playing with him, and their partnership lasted for several years. This was the high point in Bill's love of the game and he improved significantly. Then tragically Merv succumbed to a sudden illness; a terrible loss to Bill and to those who'd had the the good fortune of knowing him.

Bill then began playing much of his bridge online but he really wanted to find a bridge club and play face to face. He tried hard to find a partner but was unsuccessful in his search and eventually gave up. In addition, Connie, was needing much more assistance at home because of her health.  He once again turned his attention to the online game.

It was at this time that he met Don Freeland with whom he struck up a fruitful partnership, and they’re still playing together to this day. Don suggested that playing for MPs would suit Bill’s game best. The game they’ve played most together is the ACBL Open Pairs on BBO.

Bill is thankful to a lot of people for his bridge adventure: Mr Vanderbilt for helping to make the game what it is today; those funny golf pros; his early teacher, N.B. Shah of Lexington; and Marty Bergen, Bill's favorite bridge writer and teacher.

Be sure to look out for Bill at the bridge table (BBO billcollis) and if you do, you'd better be on your best game. And if you do let Bill and Partner "have it", give them a big smile and cheer him up with your favorite bridge story.  He loves them! 

Finally, the whole BBO team would like to acknowledge Bill's achievement and wish him continued success at the bridge table. Well done Bill!

Click here for information on all the ACBL sanctioned games on BBO where you can win Masterpoints and achieve your goals!