| Source:ACBL
Dictionary Ira
G. Corn Jr. of Dallas,
co-founder, executive and
director of Michigan General
Corp.; former assistent professor
of Southern Methodist University.
Organized,
financed and captained the
Aces(the worlds first
professional bridge team). He
took Amerias constant losses in
world play very personally. After
Italy defeated America in the
final of the 1964 world Team
Oplympiad, he decided to put his
theories to the test. He signed 6
outstanding players to contracts
and brought them to Dallas to
live, practice and shape into a
team that subsequently qualified
to represent America in the
Bermuda Bowl in 1969 and won the
world championship in 1970 and
1971.
The
last Aces team Corn put together
won the 1982 Spingold in July
after his death in April. Bobby
Wolff and Bob Hamman,
longstanding members of the Aces,
remarked:"Ira would have
loved this. This was his team, he
put the six of us together ......
just say we won one for Big
Ira". That Aces Team went on
to win the International Team
Trials and to defeat Italy in the
final of the 1983 Bermuda Bowl.
A
distinguished historian, in 1969
he purchased a copy of the
Declaration of Independence in
its first printing, then wrote
and published The
Story of the Declaration of
Independence
in 1977 . A notable expert on
World War II, he completed a book
on the Normandy invasion that
tells the story both from the
Allied and the German side.
Listed in Who's
Who in America
since 1971; author of Play
Bridge with the Aces;
wrote a daily syndicated column,
Aces on Bridge. Corn was reared
in a Baptits home where no cards
were permitted, but when, as a
college student, he was invited
to sit in a bridge game, he
discovered it was much like a
game he called Rook, which has
colors instead of suits, numbers
instead of face cards. "Rook
is really Baptist Bridge" he
said.
He
played social bridge until 1961
when he started playing
tournament bridge. He was
administrator and 1968 president
of the Dalls Bridge Association,
was tournament chairman 1966-67,
District Director from 1965 and
ACBL president 1980.
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