Marshall Kuschner was born in 1937 and passed away October 21, 2024. In a tribute written for the ACBL Bridge Bulletin, his son Douglas recalled taking up bridge with his father at age 11, at the Wild Whist Bridge Club in Westwood, California — the start of a partnership that carried them through local sectionals and regionals, and years later, all the way to NABCs together.

Bridge is also how Marshall met his wife: on a work trip to Virginia in the 1980s, he visited a local club run by Candace, and the two became friends on the NABC circuit, staying together more than 30 years. When Marshall later moved to Virginia to be with her, he began helping her run the club, and together they went on to operate several clubs and direct at every level of tournament. He served as an ACBL Tournament Director from 2000 to 2024.

Away from the bridge table, Marshall was an avid baseball and basketball fan. He once drove across the country twice, mapping his route around minor-league ballparks so he could catch a game at every stop. After he and Candace settled in Reston, he adopted the local high school basketball team as his own, rarely missing a game in 30 years — and in his final season, while he was ill, he got to see them win their first state championship.

Douglas remembered bridge as truly his father's life passion: Marshall loved supporting Candace's directing, and was overjoyed when all three of his sons — Joshua, Douglas, and Benjamin — took up the game, giving him the chance to play alongside each of them, including as a foursome at an NABC in Dallas in 2014.