William James Brin, born February 17, 1924, collapsed while competing at the Sacramento Autumn Open on October 29, 2011, and died on November 10, at the age of 87. As noted in the USATT Magazine, “he was the type of competitor and human being who made you glad that he and you were part of the same community.” Besides playing table tennis, he was an active hiker, cyclist, and pilot (since 1960) of a plane he built himself; he came to our club a few years ago with his neck in a brace, and when we asked him what happened, he said, “Oh, I crashed my plane.” But despite serious injuries, he continued to participate in tournaments, more than 90 in the past ten years.
He is survived by his wife Harriet, also an active player, three daughters, and numerous grandchildren and great-grandchildren. When his cardiologist recently told him to stop playing, he refused. So he went out doing what he loved best; Harriet told us she plans to keep on playing.
Back in August 2008, we had a visit from Khoa Nguyen, currently the number 52 rated player (2422) in the US, as well as two friends, Truong Manh Tu (2333) and Trieu-Tien Nguyen (2281), who is Thuy-Tien Goodwin’s brother.
Truong Manh Tu, David Rudesill, Trieu-Tien Nguyen, Thuy-Tien Goodwin, Richard Williams,
Khoa’s friend Julie, and Khoa Nguyen. Partially hidden at right: Stephen Alfred
Truong delivering a wicked serve to Khoa
David Rudesill, one of our best players, in 2004 spent six months in southern China teaching English, and of course playing table tennis as well. Here he is holding up, in addition to his forefinger, a trophy he won for being the best player of the week in the “A” division (highest of four) at the Shenzhen club:
Here’s a nice stamp from the German Democratic Republic;
click on the image to see it much larger.
The text, translated: “Eighth Gymnastics and Sports Festival
and Eleventh Children and Youth National Games — Leipzig 1987”
We’re on the Butterfly page! They’re sponsors of Stefan Feth, and put up an article (written by Jim Langley) about our recent clinic.
Sadly, we have lost one of our longtime members, Mike Hite.
Read the Santa Cruz Sentinel obituary
Santa Cruz Sentinel
July 13, 2008
Michael William Hite passed away on July 7 after a courageous battle with lung disease. He was 63. He was a native of southern California but lived his last twenty years in Santa Cruz, a town he loved. He served in the US Navy during the Vietnam war and was a member of the USS Saint Paul Association.
Among his many interests were table tennis — he belonged to the US Table Tennis Association — body surfing, reading, movies and music, music, music. He was a big supporter of Public Radio and was known to many programmers at the local stations in Santa Cruz.
He is survived by his mother, Mary Hite, brother Bill Hite, sister Cathey Hite, sister and brother-in-law Heidi and Ron Ulm, longtime companion Suzi Klein, and his dearly loved canine companion, Moose, along with friends and family members around the world too numerous to list here. Mike will be remembered by all whose lives he touched, and especially by the many many lifelong friends with whom he remained close to the very end. He will be missed beyond words. A celebration of his life will take place in Santa Cruz on a date to be announced later. Contributions in honor of Michael should be made to the Santa Cruz SPCA.
Lyrics from a 1901 song (“What A Funny Game.”),
vividly illustrated by this detail from the cover;
click on it to see it all.
“I’ve played at marbles when a boy,
I’ve played at cricket too,
Last night I saw a ‘ping-pong’ game,
which I’ll describe to you.
They had a ball, two little bats,
a net about so long.
At first the girl went ping
and then the gentleman went pong!
What a funny game —
’twas really most amusing,
til presently they dropped the ball,
tho’ neither was to blame;
and then the lady and the gent —
both underneath the table went,
and stayed there nearly half-an-hour,
What a funny game!”
