He's 92, totally blind, and plays award winning contract bridge 3 days a week in Braintree
BRAINTREE − You have to see Bob Boyd play to fully understand the marvel of this testament to the human spirit.
His card-playing buddies at the Puritan Bridge Club have been raving about him for years. When he recently achieved a top award, Gold Life Master, from the American Contract Bridge League, they held a party. Some of the best players in Greater Boston were there to play and honor him.
His son, Dennis, came up from New Jersey; his sister, Rosalind McKeon, 89, traveled down from Haverhill.
"It's monumental, given his handicaps," his bridge partner, Patricia Di Sciullo, of Easton, said. "When other people with far greater achievement see him, they are amazed at how he can memorize those cards and then play them so well.
"He is memorizing 52 cards in every hand. And we play 24 hands a day."
Boyd is 92, totally blind and plays duplicate bridge three times a week.
"It is my main form of entertainment and I've met a lot of wonderful people," he said.
He is adept at using some of his skills − memorizing the cards, analyzing what is happening in front of him although he can't see it, understanding the rules − to good advantage.
"He is very independent and likes to have to figure things out," Nora Schneider, a club member, said. "His memory skills go off the chart."
In a recent game, when Kate King, of Dorchester, a fairly new club member, made an insufficient bid, he quickly reminded her of the rules and she corrected her bid.
"That didn't hurt, did it?" he teased her with a gentle smile. He is known for his kind sense of humor.
Di Sciullo has been his bridge partner for 10 years and picks him up at his apartment at the Grove Manor Estates retirement community in Braintree.
"There is never a person who plays for the first time against Bob who is not amazed at what he does," Di Sciullo said. "Everybody says, 'Oh wow, I could never do that.' He's an inspiration to all who see him."
Duplicate bridge is a game of skill, not of chance, with the same hands played at every table. To succeed, players have to bid correctly and then show the most skill at their table, which seats two competing two-person partnerships.
The average age of a competitive bridge player in this country is 71.
The game is popular with seniors because, once learned, it is fun, challenging, can help keep the memory sharp and offers social stimulation. Many enjoyed playing bridge in their younger years, but there are plenty of resources to help those who have never played to learn the game.
Boyd is modest about his achievement.
"If you play often and live long enough, you'll achieve it," he said of his Gold Life Master points accumulation.
At the party, Dennis Boyd told the gathering his father has said he just does what the other bridge players do.
"I tell him that it's more like Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers, where she did everything he did, but backwards in high heels. He plays bridge without sight," Dennis said.
What others call "this monumental achievement" developed gradually, with help at crucial points.
Growing up in South Boston and Dorchester, he would watch his mother play "party bridge" with other mothers. He lost his vision gradually over many years due to a rare, inherited progressive eye disease, retinitis pigmentosa.
When he served in the Korean War, in the infantry, he was still able to be a sharpshooter. He was in charge of operations for many years at Foley Fish Co. in Boston.
He and his late wife, Ann, first played whist together and, after he retired, he took up duplicate bridge when he was 60. He still had enough vision to enjoy traveling, and bridge made trips more fun because in every destination, from Las Vegas to Florida, they found a welcoming bridge club.
"When I was 75, the lights finally went out, and in a way, that was a relief," he said. "I had been adjusting all of my life and being completely blind was almost better."
Another player, the late Donna Dailey, asked him, "What if we recorded your hand? Could you memorize it?"
"I'll give it a try," he said.
It worked and the club directors have been recording his bridge hands in advance ever since on a small blue tape recorder he keeps by his side.
He listens to each hand and memorizes it. The other players accommodate his needs by speaking their bids and the cards they are playing. They also place the cards in the correct order for him so he can play them when another player arrives.
"I could see the cards when I started playing and I had a good long time to figure it out," he said. "You've got to do what you've got to do. Once you get into the game, everyone is very competitive, and when you win, it's great."
His wife died in 2016. He keeps busy by playing the piano, walking on a treadmill, listening to the Wall Street Journal every day through a phone reading service the paper provides, handling his own investments and reading history and fiction through the Perkins School for the Blind's books on tape.
"If you want to know what to read, he is great at giving a book review," Di Sciullo said.
Reach Sue Scheible at sscheible@patriotledger.com.
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This article originally appeared on The Patriot Ledger: He's a blind award-winning bridge player. Meet Bob Boyd of Braintree.
