George Sturgis Coffin, born in Waltham, Massachusetts, on September 8, 1903 and died at Waltham-Weston Hospital near his home in Belmont on March 12, 1994.

A descendant of Tristrum's son Stephen Coffin, he was a 1928 graduate of Harvard and 1931 winner of The Bridge World international problem solving contest. He was also co-founder of the American Bridge Teachers Association (ABTA).

Coffin was a famous author, publisher and distributor of bridge

Contract bridge

Contract bridge, usually known simply as bridge, is a trick-taking card game using a standard deck of 52 playing cards played by four players in two competing partnerships with partners sitting opposite each other around a small table...

 books and supplies. Author of more than 200 books that included bridge, poker, cribbage and other card games, he was particularly known for his exceptional technique in bridge endplays (eliminations, squeezes and coups) resulting in his nickname "Endplays" Coffin, after his classic books of the same title.
He also wrote about fungi, on which he was an authority. He is survived by a daughter, Harriette Johnson of Shelburne Falls, Mass., and two grandchildren.

Selective bibliography

Recognized as having made a major contribution to the technical development of the game. Greatly revised edition (1973), revised (1975) entitled Bridge Perfect Plays and Match Points Ways Consolidates the latest versions of the preceding four books into one.

External links

• Obituary (The New York Times
  The New York Times
  The New York Times is an American daily newspaper founded and continuously published in New York City since 1851. The New York Times has won 106 Pulitzer Prizes, the most of any news organization...
  
  , May 5, 1994)
• George Coffin's Collection by Hugh Darwen (2004)