Joli Quentin Kansil is a noted inventor of card games, word games, and board games. Bridgette was the first game he designed, and it has been his most famous one. It is a two-handed Bridge game played with a special 55-card deck. He invented during his senior year at Asbury Park High School, and he has designed 40 games in all. In 1986 Bridgette joined Monopoly, Scrabble, Clue and 20 other other famous games as members of Games magazine’s Hall of Fame.

After graduating APHS, Joli went to Rutgers and later the University of the Americas in Mexico City for a MA degree in Latin-American history. He worked one year in Manhattan for Albert H. Morehead, the Bridge editor of The New York Times, and then he moved to Honolulu, Hawaii where he began his second career — that of an English teacher. He later taught in Thailand, Vietnam, and Singapore.

His third career has been as a writer. He is the author of Conversations with Opa, a book in dialogue format dealing with the origin of the Universe, how life came to be on Earth, the conflict between science and religion, how to live a life of contentment, and forecasts for the future. It was published in 2011 by Prometheus Books, Inc. (New York).

Joli is the editor of the Official Rules of Card Games, published by the U. S. Playing Card Company. He completely revised this 350-page book adding many new games, anecdotes and diagrams; over 200,000 copies have been sold since 1999. He also is the author of The Backgammon Quiz Book, published by Playboy Press (1978), and he was the Backgammon editor of Games magazine for several years.

In voluntary work Joli helped initiate the drive of the verbal abuse campaign for the National Committee for the Prevention of Child Abuse (NCPCA), which resulted in nationwide posters, magazine ads, and TV spots dealing with this problem. He was also a board member for 17 years of Action on Smoking and Health (Washington, DC), and he is a former board member of the Honolulu Symphony.

Travel has been Joli’s passion as he has been to 230 countries and colonies, including such faraway places as Antarctica, Pitcairn Island, Mongolia, Greenland, Marquesas Islands, and Bhutan.

Three children:

• Melanie Quintana, born 1976; Harvard graduate, married with 2 kids
• Zane Quincy, born 1992; Loyola Marymount graduate; computer expert
• Xantia Que, born 2002; graduating Falmouth High School in Maine, 2020

Favorite quote:The Universe is the most extraordinary masterpiece ever constructed by nobody. (G. K. Chesterton, British writer)