Background
Kansil was born Joel Dennis Gaines in Manhattan and lived much of his childhood at the Jersey Shore, graduating Asbury Park High School in 1960 and Rutgers University in 1964.
journalist writer author Games inventor
Kansil was born Joel Dennis Gaines in Manhattan and lived much of his childhood at the Jersey Shore, graduating Asbury Park High School in 1960 and Rutgers University in 1964.
He was also a teacher in Hawaii, Thailand, Vietnam, and Singapore. Bridgette, a two-player bridge game, is his most famous game. His first job was as personal assistant to Albert Hodges Morehead, a writer, lexicographer, and the first bridge editor of The New York Times.
In 1965 Kansil moved to Mexico City, where he earned an Master of Arts degree in Latin American history from la Universidad de las Americas.
After Mexico, he moved to Honolulu, Hawaii and worked as a full-time English teacher at Punahou School. During these years, he began his many travels to Central America, the Caribbean, South Pacific, South East Asia, and other places including Mongolia, Wallis and Futuna Islands, Antarctica and Greenland.
In all, he has been to 230 countries and colonies. Kansil was honored as Game Inventor of the Year in 1992 at the annual Game Fair in Essen, Germany, and earlier, in 1986, Bridgette was added to GAMES Magazine"s Hall of Fame.
In 1973, Kansil co-founded the Hawaii Backgammon Club (now called the Aloha State Backgammon Club), and he promoted this game by organizing many tournaments.
Another famous bridge player, Oswald Jacoby, called Joli Quentin Kansil "the best combination game inventor/game player in the world". Kansil has three children and is currently residing in Makati, a prominent city near Manila, in the Philippines, where he is a writer and frequent tournament bridge player.
He won the Hawaii State Backgammon Championships twice (1973, 2000), and he placed in the top 16 bracket in Macau (1977), Monte Carlo (1979), Saint Moritz, Switzerland (1986) and Tokyo, Japan (also 1986). "The book covers a wide range of topics, notably the origin of the Universe and life on Earth, the conflict between science and religion, the 10 greatest human accomplishments, contentment, and forecasts for the future.
A member of the Explorers Club, he was the journalist on the Zancudo-Cocha expedition in Ecuador in 1987, and he made a rare visit to Pitcairn Island in the South Seas that same year. Besides his work in the field of games, he was active as a member of the board of directors of ASH (Action on Smoking and Health) for 17 years, and he has designed a modernized spelling system and a reform calendar.
