Merl Reagle had the soul of a copy editor and the style of a stand-up comedian. During his too-short life he was both of those and much more: musician, songwriter, author, and one of the world’s great ...

Everyone knew Merl Reagle as the puzzle guy, the Tucsonan who made it big on a national stage as the constructor of puzzles published in newspapers around the country including the Arizona Daily Star.

For these readers, the obituary Sunday of puzzle master Merl Reagle, who died after a sudden illness last Saturday, hit them personally. The article described Reagle as among the “best known and most ...

Merl Reagle, a beloved crossword puzzle maker whose work anchored the magazine of the San Francisco Examiner and later The Chronicle, died suddenly Saturday in his hometown of Tampa, Fla. For 30 years ...

NEW YORK — Merl Reagle, a playfully irreverent crossword puzzle constructor whose clues set off spirited cerebrations from fans rather than frustrated surrenders to dictionary arcana, died Saturday in ...

At the annual American Crossword Puzzle Tournament (ACPT), the Woodstock of wordplay held each spring in Stamford, Conn., Chronicle Magazine puzzle master Merl Reagle is a latter-day cross between ...

Merl Reagle, one of the world's greatest crossword constructors and a weekly contributor to Gambit since 2008, has died at 65, according to reports in The New York Times and the Los Angeles Times.

One of my favorite Merl Reagle moments was when he appeared on the Oprah Winfrey show in support of the 2006 Oscar-nominated documentary about the world of crossword puzzles, “Wordplay.” Reagle, who ...

His fans knew Merl Reagle as a master wordsmith with an incomparable talent for crafting crosswords and other word puzzles. Scott Carter knew him as a musician, composer, playwright, fierce chess ...

Puzzle constructor Merl Reagle begins his weekly stint as The Washington Post's crossword master on Sunday. "There's a fine line between entertainment and torture," Reagle once wrote. "I ought to know ...

Merl Reagle, a playfully irreverent crossword puzzle constructor whose clues set off spirited cerebrations from his fans rather than frustrated surrenders to dictionary arcana, died Saturday in Tampa, ...