Merl Reagle’s crossword in the April 24-30, 2025 issue of Creative Loafing Tampa Bay Credit: Photo by Ray Roa

Close to 10 years ago, on Aug. 22, 2015, I had the sad task of delivering the news to CL readers that our very own crossword genius, Merl Reagle, had died unexpectedly at the age of 65.

I call him our own because, even though his crosswords were syndicated to solvers everywhere, Merl lived in Tampa. I vividly recall how much fun it was to meet him for the first time in person—I think it was at a backyard party not long after I began work at CL (which was then in its Weekly Planet phase). Like any writer, I enjoy words, and Merl clearly loved, loved, loved them.

He was famous for his instinctive ability to anagram—instantly rearranging the letters in signs, in titles, in people’s names to create different (and often hilarious) alternatives. Deb Amlen, the New York Times’s games columnist, wrote a heartfelt tribute to Reagle upon his death, in which she recalled this classic anagram moment:

“One of my fondest—and most embarrassing—encounters with him was at the American Crossword Puzzle Tournament, right after my book, ‘It’s Not P.M.S., It’s You’ came out, when he stopped an entire hotel lobby’s worth of people dead in their tracks by pointing at me from across that lobby and bellowing “Smutty Positions!” It was an anagram of the book’s title, and it was his way of saying hello after not seeing me for a whole year.”

Merl summed up his own delight with words in an interview with the student newspaper of his alma mater, the University of Arizona: “Language,” he said, “is a playground that never ends.”

The spirit of Merl informs a project that I’ve been involved with since 2023: Word Play, a fundraiser for Voices of Hope for Aphasia (VOH), a St. Pete-based nonprofit that helps people with language disorders due to stroke, brain tumor or traumatic brain injury. Reminiscent of the St. Pete Free Clinic’s Battle of the Minds, a trivia contest, the centerpiece of VOH’s fundraiser is also a competition, but one that involves language—a crossword puzzle. With the help of Merl’s widow, Marie Haley, we enlist a professional crossword constructor each year to craft a puzzle for the event. VOH also gives an award in Merl’s honor, inspired by one of the last things he said to Marie: “Use words for good.”

So far, Word Play has raised $250,000 for VOH programs. The third annual Word Play takes place May 15 at Banquet Masters in Clearwater from 6:30-9:30 p.m. There’ll be dinner, word games, and opportunities to give, with the main attraction continuing to be the crossword competition. Tables will compete to be the first to finish the puzzle, this year created by New York Times crossword constructor Kevin Christian especially for this event. The Merl Reagle Words for Good Award will be presented to the Pinellas Community Foundation. The Poynter Institute’s Roy Peter Clark, a renowned wordsmith in his own right, will give a video tribute to Merl, a man he remembers as “one of the most creative and thoughtful men on the planet.”

Tickets to Word Play 2025 happening Thursday, May 15 at Banquet Masters in Clearwater are still available and start at $95.

To order books from Merl’s Sunday Crosswords series, go to sundaycrosswords.com, where you can also read his entertaining essay, “How I Drive You Crazy: Confessions of a Crossword Constructor.” The best of his puzzles continue to run in syndication in numerous publications, including the one Creative Loafing Tampa Bay puts on newsstands every Thursday.

Readers and community members are always welcome to send letters to the editors Please let us know if we may consider your submission for publication.

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This article appears in May 1-7, 2025.