Melvin D. Skolnik

Melvin D. Skolnik, intrepid entrepreneur, passionate competitor and animal lover, died on November 26, 2018. He was 77 and a resident of Santa Fe, New Mexico, after having lived on both coasts for many years. Born and raised in Chicago, Mel received a law degree from Columbia University and undergraduate and master’s degrees in economics from the University of Michigan while simultaneously obtaining a CPA license. Mel began his business career as a real estate developer building innovative student housing projects at various midwestern universities. He expanded his horizons acquiring land for a beachfront resort in Mallorca, a golf course in Atlantic City, and building a shopping center in New York. An avid bowler since grade school (he bowled his first 300 game when he was 14) he acquired a chain of bowling alleys after having acquired public companies in a variety of different fields including computer education, stock quotation machines and department stores. By the time Mel was twenty-eight years old, he was written up on the front page of the Wall Street Journal as a multifaceted and gifted young entrepreneur, and was named the youngest bank President in the country. In 1970 he received the “Golden Plate Award” from the American Academy of Achievement for “conglomerate whiz kid”. On the West Coast, he started a private postal service, a direct mail shopper, and a printing business. In later years, Mel devised a unique options trading program. To the last days of his life, he took great delight in knowing he was consistently beating the various stock indices. Parallel to his business endeavors, in 1981 Mel, a newcomer to the world of competitive duplicate Bridge, won the prestigious McKenney Trophy, awarded each year to the player with the most masterpoints in that year. The exciting year long competition between Mel and four -time McKenney winner Hollywood producer Barry Crane, described by the New York Times at the time as ‘the match-point wizard from Hollywood who has the world’s biggest collection of master points” resulted in the hardest fought and most bitterly contested fight for that trophy in history, reaching a remarkable climax in Reno on New Year’s Eve. During his McKenney race, Mel collected almost 2,500 master points, the second highest total ever recorded, having won thirty-eight regional events, a record at the time, and also setting the record for the most points ever won at a single tournament. Mel was also a Scrabble enthusiast. In 2004 he entered his first National Scrabble Championship and won his division. He is survived by his loving and devoted wife Hilary, his brother Donald, his life-long dearest friend Elisabeth, several cousins, and a wide circle of cherished friends to whom Mel served as a shining example of a joyous life of adventure, accomplishment and humor, characterized by fearless entrepreneurial risk taking, a love of competition, a thirst to win at the highest levels of the games and business endeavors he undertook, valiant courage in the face of adversity and most of all, as the possessor of a exquisitely gentle, kind, loyal and fiercely loving heart. To those who loved and were loved by him, he meant everything. He will be immeasurably missed.