Easley Rutland Blackwood Sr.

(June 25, 1903-Mar. 27, 1992). Born in Birmingham, Alabama, Blackwood spent most of his adult life in Indianapolis. After graduating from high school, he joined the Metropolitan Life Insurance Company and managed its offices in Decatur, Illinois, and Chicago before moving to Indianapolis in 1932. He continued in this capacity until retirement in 1964 when he opened the Blackwood Bridge Center, which he operated until 1976.

Having been taught to play at the age of 11, Blackwood became one of the nation’s foremost authorities on the game of contract bridge. The author of a dozen books and numerous articles on the subject, Blackwood devised the bidding system that still carries his name, the Blackwood Convention. Originally intended as only a minor addition to a long-forgotten “perfect” bidding system, the Blackwood Convention, which contract bridge players use to explore their partner’s “possession of aces, kings and in some variations, the queen of trumps to judge more precisely whether slam [12 tricks] is likely to be a good contract.” The Blackwood Convention remains a standard bidding technique for contract bridge players.

From 1948 to 1992 Blackwood wrote a syndicated daily column, Blackwood on Bridge. After retirement, he began a series of lectures aboard luxury cruises, which allowed him to travel around the world eight times. He once estimated that he had taught over 10,000 students how to play contract bridge. Between 1968 and 1971 Blackwood served as executive secretary of the American Contract Bridge League (ACBL). In 1984 he was named the “Bridge Personality of the Year” by the International Bridge Press Association. He was inducted into the ACBL Hall of Fame in 1995.

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