Tribute to Ernesto d’Orsi from Gianarrigo Rona
By Anna Gudge In Archive, News, Tribute On 9th January 2015
Further tragic news has shocked the bridge community.
Another great personality, a true giant who illustrated bridge history over the last forty years left us: Ernesto d’Orsi passed away yesterday.
Ernesto was a pillar of the WBF from the time of his entrance in the board in 1980, later becoming President and still today he was an active authoritative member, responsible for managing and running such a complex machine as the organisation of the Championships. Over the years he became an essential point of reference, his advice, his suggestions represented a sort of “permanent school” for everybody.
Ernesto was appreciated, loved and respected by all, also for his exemplar style: a gentlemen from an earlier era, made in a mould that day per day seems to disappear. I have known him since the eighties and I started to work with him in 1992 in the preparation and organisation of the Salsomaggiore Olympiad, celebrated under his Presidency. In these four years of my own Presidency Ernesto was for me a fundamental support, an inexhaustible source of advice and encouragement.
But above all Ernesto was a great friend of mine, a true friend, sensible, discreet, generous, brotherly, the kind of friend who is always at your side, in the sun or in the storm, giving you the awareness that you were never alone. He was for me a great life’s teacher who enriched my person. It seems incredible to me that he passed away.
We were together in Sanya and together we planned and programmed the Championships’ activity for this year. We had to meet at the end of February. But the terrible disease which struck him last year, and which gave the illusion to have been eradicated, left him no escape and quickly carried him away. Now Ernesto is no more with us and for all of us it is an irreparable loss, but his example and his teaching will be always with us, in our hearts, in our minds. We all are close to Cecilia and her children in the memory of a marvelous unforgettable friend
My last strong abbraccio Ernesto.
Gianarrigo