Merl Reagle, 65, crossword maker

Crossword puzzle creator Merl Reagle, 65, whose Sunday puzzles for The Philadelphia Inquirer and other newspapers were known for their wit, puns, and wicked inventiveness, died Saturday in a Tampa, Fla., hospital.

Mr. Reagle took ill Thursday and was rushed to the hospital, where he was diagnosed with acute pancreatitis, said his wife, Marie Haley. He slipped into a coma and did not regain consciousness.

His puzzle for this Sunday in The Inquirer - as well as the Washington Post and the Los Angeles Times, among the roughly 50 papers that carried his syndicated work - is titled "Things Are People, Too." It's unclear whether he had prepared additional new puzzles, but Haley said it was unlikely because he often worked right up to deadline.

Mr. Reagle, one of the best known and most beloved crafters of puzzles in the business, was featured in the 2006 documentary on crosswords, Wordplay, appeared as an animated version of himself in an episode of The Simpsons and was once on Oprah.

He was one of the few people in the field who could make a living entirely on the puzzles. Although his crosswords were far from easy, he steered away from the kind of esoteric terms found just about nowhere but crossword puzzles. He cited two examples, "Anoa, which is an ox. Ern, which is a sea eagle," in a 2013 Hartford Courant interview. "You see documentaries about those animals, and they don't call them erns."

Mr. Reagle favored wit over obscurity.

For a puzzle he called "Movies That Shouldn't Be Shown Together," one of the answers was "DRIVING MISS DAISY NUTS."

His playfulness with language attracted well-known writers as fans, including screenwriter Steve Zaillian, who won an Oscar for Schindler's List.

Mr. Reagle, who started constructing crossword puzzles at age 6 and made his first puzzle sale, to the New York Times, at 16, clearly took delight in the work.

"I always felt," he told the Plain Dealer, "the English language was the best toy a boy ever had."

He was born in Audubon, N.J. and attended the University of Arizona. In addition to his wife, Mr. Reagle is survived by his father, Sam; and a brother, also named Sam.