American Contract Bridge League
Unit 484   District 20

Profile

Kemble Yates

(Published January 2003)

January 1,2003, was an especially exciting day for Kemble and his bride, Diana. They moved into their new home in Ashland, right down the street from the Bellview Grange. (We suspect the choice of the lot may have been influenced by proximity to the Monday night, Friday afternoon, and the Sunday Unit games.)

Kemble is a great asset to our Unit Board, but "Treasurer" is by no means his first Board job. He has held most positions during eight years of service, including president.

While juggling his Board responsibilities and overseeing the building of his new home, Kemble also teaches full time at Southern Oregon University. He is a Professor of Mathematics, and has taught at the University for 16 years. Kemble completed his undergraduate work at the University of Puget Sound in Tacoma, Washington. He received his PhD in Mathematics from Washington State University in Pullman.

He has always been a Washington State son until he moved here in the Rogue Valley. He was born in Pullman, and spent many years in Everett.

Kemble grew up in a home where everybody played bridge. He learned party bridge from his parents and grandparents. He took time off from the game to pursue his studies, but he started playing bridge again in graduate school. "Luckily I got the bug toward the end of my schooling, because 1 never would have passed my courses if I had started earlier," he said.

Kemble joined the ACBL in 1983; he has earned over 1800 master points. He remembers one memorable win in the Flight C Grand Nationals in 1990. He and Dan Farrell, through a miscommunication, ended up in 6. with a 3-3 heart fit, and he made the contract! "I was sweating bullets," he said. ''The contract should have been 6 NT; we were lucky."

Diana, Kemble's wife, is a real estate agent, who is fully supportive of Kemble's bridge activities, but doesn't play the game herself. The two love to travel when they can. They enjoy camping, weekends at the coast, and going to concerts.

They have a cat named Whiskey-Ney Ney, and since Kemble inherited the cat when he married Diana, he doesn't know the origin of the name.

Kemble would like to see new life injected into the Unit Games. "I'd like to see more people attracted to this extra-point, once-a-month event."