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That’s Harry Falk talking. The members of the Professional Tournament Directors Organization recognized this people spirit in him and presented him with the annual Fred Friendly Award. This prize is given to the tournament director who best fulfills the friendly standards set by Paul Stehly many years ago. Stehly was such an outgoing director that he was renamed Fred Friendly by his fellow workers. Falk, who works in the Florida area primarily, was promoted to Tournament Director earlier this month.
Harry has been a director for only four and a half years. His mother tried
for years to get him to try bridge, but he resisted until 1985. Finally
he gave in and took some lessons. “It was too slow,
so I started taking private lessons from Norma
Shelley. This worked fine – Norma and
I became good friends and compatible bridge
partners.”
During this period he was working in the family mattress business in Rochester NY. There were two things he didn’t like – the cold weather and the mattress business. So off to Florida he went, opening a club that staged several games a week.
So how did he get into directing? “The idea of directing had always been in the back of my mind, and finally I did something about it. I wrote to the ACBL office about what I wanted to do, and they put me in contact with Kojak (Bill Schoder).” Kojak encouraged him, and then Patty Johnson also gave him help after Kojak retired. “I really enjoy working with Harry,” Johnson said. “He’s always light-hearted and fun.”
(reprinted, with permission, from the Summer 2001 Toronto NABC bulletin )