William C. "Will" Weng (February 25, 1907 – May 2, 1993) was an American

journalist A journalist is an individual that collects/gathers information in form of text, audio, or pictures, processes them into a news-worthy form, and disseminates it to the public. The act or process mainly done by the journalist is called journalism ...

and

crossword puzzle A crossword is a word puzzle that usually takes the form of a square or a rectangular grid of white- and black-shaded squares. The goal is to fill the white squares with letters, forming words or phrases, by solving clues which lead to the answ ...

constructor who was the crossword puzzle editor for ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...

'' from 1969 to 1977. Born in

Terre Haute, Indiana Terre Haute ( ) is a city in and the county seat of Vigo County, Indiana, United States, about 5 miles east of the state's western border with Illinois. As of the 2010 census, the city had a population of 60,785 and its metropolitan area had a ...

, he attended Indiana State Teachers College. He moved to

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

in 1927. He received a master's degree from the

Columbia University School of Journalism The Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism is located in Pulitzer Hall on the university's Morningside Heights campus in New York City. Founded in 1912 by Joseph Pulitzer, Columbia Journalism School is one of the oldest journalism sc ...

and joined the ''Times'' in 1930 as a reporter. He was a lieutenant commander in the

United States Navy The United States Navy (USN) is the maritime service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the eight uniformed services of the United States. It is the largest and most powerful navy in the world, with the estimated tonnage ...

during

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

. Weng occasionally assisted the ''New York Times'' puzzle editor,

Margaret Farrar Margaret Petherbridge Farrar (March 23, 1897 – June 11, 1984) was an American journalist and the first crossword puzzle editor for ''The New York Times'' (1942–1968). Creator of many of the rules of modern crossword design, she compiled and ed ...

, and published his first crossword in the newspaper in 1963. He succeeded Farrar as crossword editor in early 1969 and was himself succeeded by

Eugene T. Maleska Eugene Thomas Maleska (January 6, 1916 – August 3, 1993) was a U.S. crossword puzzle constructor and editor. ''The New York Times'' had published dozens of crosswords that he had submitted as a freelance contributor. He became the crossword ed ...

when he retired on his 70th birthday in 1977. After leaving the ''New York Times'' he became the editor for a start-up crossword puzzle venue called The Crosswords Club, preparing five Sunday-size crosswords every month for distribution to subscribers. Weng died of

throat cancer Head and neck cancer develops from tissues in the lip and oral cavity (mouth), larynx (throat), salivary glands, nose, sinuses or the skin of the face. The most common types of head and neck cancers occur in the lip, mouth, and larynx. Symptoms ...

Manhattan Manhattan (), known regionally as the City, is the most densely populated and geographically smallest of the five boroughs of New York City. The borough is also coextensive with New York County, one of the original counties of the U.S. state ...

References

1907 births 1993 deaths Indiana State University alumni 20th-century American non-fiction writers Crossword compilers Deaths from throat cancer Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism alumni Writers from Terre Haute, Indiana {{puzzle-game-stub