Reprinted with permission

Elaine Fong discovered the fledgling San Francisco Croquet Club in her neighborhood in the mid- to late eighties and quickly became a loyal, energetic, utterly dependable and totally supportive member of the club and a long-time member of its board in a period of rapid development that by the early nineties had established the SFCC and its annual OPEN as major fixtures in USCA croquet.

She helped to make the SFCC (now in decline and somewhat eclipsed by its sister club in Oakland, across the Bay) the biggest USCA club on public turf in the country throughout the nineties and the Western "flagship" of the USCA in the era of East-West schism in the sport.

She was, in her person, the "social glue" that made everything work. She delighted in organizing and directing, with long-time president Karen Collingwood, the social functions and support needed for the San Francisco Open to become the excellent annual it was through all its 16 editions, ending in 2000. She served for a long time on the USCA Management Committee as VP of the Western Region.

Elaine died at home in her sleep on Thursday, September 15. If there is a croquet heaven, Elaine Fong is surely there at the gate welcoming guests and asking them which of the day's three lunch choices they'd prefer....