Alan Truscott

Alan Fraser Truscott (16 April 1925 – 4 September 2005) was a bridge player, writer, and editor. He wrote the daily bridge column for The New York Times for 41 years, from 1964 to 2005, and served as Executive Editor for all six editions of The Official Encyclopedia of Bridge from 1964 to 2002.

Truscott was born in Brixton, south London, and showed early prowess at chess. He attended Whitgift School in Croydon and served in the Royal Navy for three years around the end of World War II. From 1947 he studied at the University of Oxford, which he represented at both chess and bridge. With Oxford partner Robert d'Unienville, he was on the British team (along with Terence Reese and Boris Schapiro) that won a bronze medal at the 1951 European Bridge League championships, age only 26. He represented Britain in the same event twice more, finishing second with partner Maurice Harrison-Gray in 1958 (again along with Reese–Schapiro) and first with partner Tony Priday in 1961. He was in charge of organizing the 1961 rendition hosted by Torquay in Devonshire, England. As European champions that British team finished third in the 1962 Bermuda Bowl held in New York City. The 1961 European Teams was his only international championship outside the British Isles.

According to Maureen Hiron, bridge columnist for The Independent of London, in New York City "he fell in love with one of the scorers, in particular, and America in general, and decided to cross the Atlantic."

Richard L. Frey, the American Contract Bridge League publications director, recruited Truscott to help edit the ACBL's membership magazine and its Official Encyclopedia of Bridge, whose first edition was underway. Truscott moved to New York City, then the ACBL headquarters, and succeeded Albert Morehead as bridge editor of The New York Times 1 January 1964. Frey, Truscott, and the editorial board led by Morehead completed the first Encyclopedia later that year.

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