 Peter
Rank goes way back to
the Lafayette Grammar School, graduating from Mrs. Cory's class room on
the way to Acalanes. Remember in 1952, Peter
and Gene Kupper
wrote the 8th Grade class PROPHECY.
They "roasted" most of us by name including "Fred
Arbogast and Eddie
Deemer who were seen
testing bubble gum at the Guldenzopf's
Gooey Gum Plant". Peter
gave the Welcoming Speech at the 8th grade Commencement. At Acalanes, Peter was a top student, CSF all 4 years. In 1956 after graduation from Acalanes, Peter went to Stanford, receiving a BA in 1960, and then to Boalt Hall at U.C. Berkeley. He pass the California BAR and embarked on a law career in 1963. Peter was Deputy District Attorney, Contra Costa County, 1963-1970. He later lived in Los Angeles where he was a lawyer in the firm, Konowiecki & Rank. After retirement he moved to Palm Springs to focus on Bridge and Dog Shows. |
memory
lane ... like dancing through the flower years of the 60s-70s decades, or
a magic stroll down Broadway. As one of the better bridge players of our
time, Peter is a former Barry Crane Top 500 winner, an honor he achieved
with legendary Crane as his primary partner in the year 1965. Actually,
for fifteen consecutive years - 1960-1975 - no pair in bridge won as many
points as this dynamic twosome.
careers in bridge, law and the theater. At the Houston NABC* last month
the seventy-years-young (and still looking a trim 60) Peter mused of the
most exciting days of
his colorful past and his paths to bridge glory, only to stop just 200
short of 10,000.
Really.
began
at Stanford University with Peter becoming the youngest person ever to
make Life Master (at 19). A title he held for only a short time as Dianne
Barton-Paine of San Francisco made it a year younger! Why did he quit with
9800 points? There was no Grand Life Master status at that time to entice
him to pick up the final 200. To put into perspective how difficult it was
to win that many points then, that six-session national event paid Peter
and Barry a paltry 21 masterpoints! About the same as you win in a
mid-to-low bracket KO now.
years, have moved to Palm Springs, where he enjoys one of his favorite
hobbies - dog shows. He’s produced 400 of them! Well, he’s still very
active in bridge, but as league counsel to the ACBL**, a post in which his
high-level bridge
career has proved invaluable. ACBL is now the only client for this famous
attorney who worked extensively with President Ronald Reagan and
California
Governor George Deukmejian as California’s State Health Director.
1980s.