March 2025 - 76

Beth Bromberg | 1947-2024
By John E. Bromberg
Sapphire Life Master Beth Jenkins Bromberg of
Austin TX died unexpectedly on Dec 9. She was a member
of the Goodwill Committee and, at the time of her
death, had 40 unused Blue Ribbon qualifications largely
from Texas regional tournaments.
In the 1980s, she started Capitol Bridge Tours which
arranged national and international individual and
group travel to bridge tournaments which she led.
She put her passion of helping others by serving on
the board of Planned Parenthood and, in 1964, as
the national chairperson of Teen Dems. As a strong
feminist, her professional and political achievements
inspired other women around her. Beth was happiest
when surrounded by her large and growing blended
family of six children, 20 grandchildren and two
great-grandchildren.
Although she rarely played in national bridge events,
she had a dubious distinction in the four-session 2014
NABC Mixed Pairs event held in
Dallas. When the scores were posted,
she and her husband had won the
event by a narrow margin. The next
morning when the Daily Bulletin
arrived, she was second as the result
of an unrelated score correction. The
following morning, the bridge column
in The New York Times reported she was third as the
result of a further unrelated score correction.
Beth was a meticulous travel planner, planning
numerous trips for her family and friends. During her
travels, she wrote extensive blogs sprinkled with numerous
photos which she shared with family and friends.
She traveled to all seven continents, many on multiple
occasions. The sparkles in her hair were an outward
display of her inner light and vivacious, outgoing personality.
She lit up a room and made friends wherever
she went. 2
Beverly Kraft Kokish | 1947-2024
Beverly Kraft Kokish died recently after a long illness.
Beverly was an outstanding bridge player. A fierce
competitor, she won multiple Canadian Women's Teams
Championships. She was on the Canadian Women's team
that won a silver medal at the 11th World Team Olympiad
in 2000, Canada's most successful women's team ever.
Beverly was known by the many who loved her for her
quick wit, strong will and astounding resiliency. She
was also enormously generous and cared deeply for all
those around her. While her family was the center of her
world, Bev viewed family in the most expansive way.
She fed (and sometimes housed) generations of young
ones. Together with her late husband, Eric Kokish, she
opened their home to many of their kids' and grandkids'
respective friends and dear ones, over so many decades,
nurturing all with an abundance of food, music, laughter
and quirky banter.
Born in Montreal, Bev met Eric in high school; they
later journeyed through more than four decades together
- first in Montreal, then in Toronto, and finally in
Peterborough. Bev helped turn their mutual passion,
bridge, into an acclaimed joint-career in international
coaching and consulting. Their business included
writing convention systems, preparing
materials and traveling to every continent
to teach the world's top teams.
She brought not only intellectual prowess
to this work, but also a remarkable
sense of adventure, astute organizational
skills and unwavering integrity.
Bert Eccles of Montreal shared this
tribute on Bridge Winners: " Great though her talent for
bridge was, Beverly possessed an even greater aptitude
for life itself, as anyone who ever had the pleasure of
visiting the home she shared with Eric was well aware.
Not only was she a fabulous matriarch and hostess
possessed of impeccable warmth and charm, but she
also had a terrific sense of humor that was always witty
and often dry, but never hurtful or cutting. The KokishKraft
residence was often filled with young people, all
having fun and often being introduced to '60s or '70s
acts such as CCR. The term " generation gap " would
never have been created if everyone was like Beverly. "
Bev died peacefully, surrounded by her extended family.
She will be missed by all. 2
76 | Bridge Bulletin | March 2025
March 2025

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of March 2025
