Gus Duchesne Winner of the Cukoff-Latraverse-Wiser Trophy

This year, the honor goes to Gus Duchesne, an iconic bridge personality of the beautiful city of Montréal. 

The Cukoff-Latraverse-Wiser trophy is awarded annually by District 1 in honor of outstanding national directors to recognize the excellent work of directors and promoters of bridge ethics.

During an impressive tenure of nearly 50 years, Gus has maintained a considerable reputation of competence as a tournament director and of continuous congeniality. The latter earned him a well-deserved Fred Friendly Award, given annually by the ACBL to Directors recognized by their peers for their friendliness.

Gus was already a respected club and tournament director in the sixties. Along with the late Johnny Wiser and Jean La Traverse, he officiated at bridge tournaments in Montréal that attracted scores of players who were and would become legends in the game.

Gus was influential in the decision of some of them to turn to tournament directing. Henry Cukoff, Jacques Lafrance, Mark Yudin – and later on a young Guy Fauteux – would all benefit from Gus’ already established stature as a TD and his constant availability to anyone who needed help or advice.

As a player at the McGill bridge club, he noticed an enthusiastic and talented young director who had taken over the club after the graduation of a certain Joey Silver. Gus needed an assistant to run a charity game so he hired the promising young director with bright future. It was Sol Weinstein, now ACBL’s most senior National Director of the ACBL.

CONGRATULATIONS GUS!