Edwin Kantar

November 11, 1932 - April 8, 2022 Eddie Kantar was born November 11, 1932 in Minneapolis, Minnesota. The lure of the ocean and the paddle tennis courts at Venice Beach enticed him to head out to Los Angeles after graduating the U of Minnesota. As a transplanted Californian Eddie became a successful professional bridge player, a revered teacher, and one of the best-known bridge writers in the world. He was also a loving husband to Yvonne, a step dad to his two sons, Bryan and Jeff, and "Grampa Eddie" to three granddaughters.
Eddie gained stature as a player by winning 2 World Bridge Championship titles, and 15 North American Championships .He was so well respected by his peers that he was also awarded the Outstanding Sportsmanship award in 2017.
As the years went by Eddie became best known as a writer, and many of his over 30 books are considered classics, including the best selling Bridge for Dummies book. His self–deprecating humor made Kantar popular with readers around the world. He also enjoyed speaking many languages and was pleased to know that several of his books have been translated into other languages.
When not playing bridge or writing about the subject he could often be found playing table tennis, or paddle tennis (an offshoot of tennis) at Venice Beach. By the way, Eddie is the only person to have played in both a World Bridge Championship, and a World Table Tennis championship (he did better at bridge). He was inducted into the Bridge Hall of Fame in 1996, the same year he was inducted into the Minnesota State Table Tennis Hall of Fame. In 2018 he was also inducted into the National Paddle Tennis Hall of Fame.
As rare as all these accomplishments are, what Eddie will be most remembered for is his compassion, his patience and his wonderful sense of humor. He was universally loved. People from all over the world would write to him praising his work, his humor and his willingness to engage with them. Eddie Kantar is known as a great ambassador for bridge. He will truly be missed.