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Malcolm  BRACHMAN

 Nato nel 1926 a Fort Worth, Malcolm si è laureato in fisica nucleare alla Yale University ed ha ricevuto il dottorato ad Harvard.

 Dopo aver insegnato alla University of Chicago ed aver fatto ricerca presso gli Argonne National Laboratories and Instruments, nel 1954 lasciò la fisica per occuparsi degli affari di famiglia.

 Decisamente ricco, Malcolm professò la sua passione per il bridge sponsorizzando delle squadre fortissime di cui faceva il capitano giocatore e con le quali si tolse la soddisfazione di vincere molti tornei fino ad arrivare a conquistare nel 1979 a Rio de Janeiro la Bermuda Bowl.

 Nel 2001 a Parigi vinse poi il Transnanational Open Teams con in squadra una forte coppia brasiliana.

 World Life Master, sul piano nazionale conquistò tra l'altro: 3 Reisinger, 3 Spingold ed una Vanderbilt.

 Malcom morì per le complicanze di una pancreatite all'inizio del 2005.

Malcolm Brachman, has been a Texas businessman and onetime nuclear physicist who was among the first bridge enthusiasts to finance his own team.

A wealthy oil and insurance executive, Mr. Brachman would hire and underwrite six-member teams that included bridge professionals like Paul Soloway and Eddie Kantar. As captain, he led his players in winning eight national team championships, including the Reisinger Board-A-Match as recently as 2003.

In 1979, his squad won both the Vanderbilt and Spingold, which are also national titles, and defeated Italy in the Bermuda Bowl, the world's leading team competition.

"He was the first, shall we say, sponsor to win a world championship, and I think he opened people's eyes to the possibility," said Mike Passell, Mr. Brachman's long-time bridge partner. "It's like George Steinbrenner getting to play on the Yankees."

The sponsorship of bridge teams by well-heeled nonprofessional players has since become common.

Mr. Brachman, who had a doctorate in physics from Harvard, was a bridge Life Master, a coveted designation that requires 300 masterpoints earned by placing at tournaments. Mr. Brachman had 18,000 masterpoints, according to the American Contract Bridge League.

Malcolm Katzenstein Brachman was born in Fort Worth on Dec. 9, 1926, and graduated from Yale in two years with a degree in physics. After receiving his doctorate from Harvard, he taught physics at Southern Methodist University and later as an adjunct professor at the University of Chicago. He did research at Argonne National Laboratory and Texas Instruments. In 1954, he left physics to lead his family's businesses.

In addition to his daughter Lisa, he is survived by another daughter, Lynn Gryll of Chicago; a son, Mac Brachman of Evanston, Ill.; and five grandchildren.

His wife of 51 years, Minda, died in 2003.

He died cause complications of pancreatic cancer. He was 78 and until recently a Dallas resident.