Fans who turn to this page of Caliente on Thursdays no doubt feel they’ve lost a dear friend with the news that Merl Reagle, one of the greats in the crossword world, died on Saturday after a brief illness. He was 65.
Merl always kept Tucson close to his heart. He grew up here, sold his first crossword to the New York Times at the urging of his English and journalism teacher at Catalina High School, and then went on to the University of Arizona. He worked for the Arizona Daily Star on the copy desk before leaving for California to pursue a dream that would become one of his legacies.
“He was one of those people that had so many gifts that you knew one lifetime isn’t enough to realize all of them,” Scott Carter, one of his longtime friends, told the Star last weekend.
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Merl helped make Tucson a better place through his contributions to local theater, the music scene, this newspaper and his dedication to the Tucson Festival of Books.
Today we share the puzzle he crafted for the 2015 festival in March.
