Name Sam Stayman | Role Bridge Player | |
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Similar People Oswald Jacoby, Charles Goren, Helen Sobel Smith, Bobby Goldman, Bob Hamman | ||
Samuel M. "Sam" Stayman (May 28, 1909 – December 11, 1993) was an American bridge player, writer, and administrator. He is best known for Stayman, one of the world's most popular bidding conventions; indeed, a day after writing his obituary Alan Truscott called him "the player best known in the world".
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Life
Stayman was born in Worcester, Massachusetts. He graduated from Dartmouth College and from its affiliated Amos Tuck School of Business in 1930 and 1931. He became a successful textile executive (Stayman & Stayman) and portfolio management executive (Strand & Company). He lived primarily in Manhattan.
Stayman "played with enthusiasm until a few days before his death." He died of cancer at his home in Palm Beach, Florida, in 1993 at age 84. He was survived by his second wife Josephine (his first, Marjorie, had died in 1960), three daughters and a son, and several grandchildren.
Bridge career
The Stayman convention was invented independently by Jack Marx and by Stayman's regular partner George Rapée. It became associated with his name because it was first published in an article written by Stayman, in The Bridge World magazine, June 1945. He also gave his name, spelled backward, to the Namyats convention, which was invented by another regular partner, Victor Mitchell.
Stayman and Rapée, John Crawford and Howard Schenken, Charles Goren and Sidney Silodor won the inaugural Bermuda Bowl in 1950, representing North America in a 3-way tournament with Great Britain and "Europe". For the next several years the event was a long head-to-head match with a European champion that might be Great Britain; Stayman, Rapée, Crawford, and Schenken won the next two in 1951 and 1953 with different teammates. Stayman also won a score of North American titles.
From 1958 to 1972, Stayman was president of the Cavendish Club of New York. As a bridge administrator, he was treasurer of the American Contract Bridge League (ACBL) from 1966 to 1969, and also served on the ACBL Charity Foundation. He was recognized as an honorary member of the ACBL in 1969 and of the American Bridge Teachers Association (ABTA) in 1979, having written at least a few books on bridge.
Stayman was inducted by the ACBL Hall of Fame in 1996.
Honors
Wins
Runners-up
Publications
Stayman was a contributing editor of The Official Encyclopedia of Bridge, which appeared in several editions beginning 1964. He wrote three books.
A second US edition of the latter was published as Highroad to Winning Bridge: do you play Stayman? (NY: Cornerstone Library, 1970), with a foreword by Omar Sharif. OCLC 2555487 A Chinese translation was published in 1972. OCLC 436266374
The Complete Stayman System was published at least in French (1956) and Italian (1965) translations, introduced by Pierre Albarran and Mario Franco. OCLC 68685407 OCLC 68685620