Manny Nosowsky, a New York Times crossword puzzle creator who delighted solvers with his witty, pun-filled puzzles for nearly two decades, died on Wednesday in San Francisco. He was 94.
His death, at a hospital, was confirmed by his wife, Debby Nosowsky.
Mr. Nosowsky had been practicing urology for about 20 years when he faced a sudden bout of health issues. In 1983, at age 51, he gave up medicine and retired. Then he ran into a problem common for people who have stopped working; he had nothing to do.
He joined his wife in solving crossword puzzles, and his curiosity was soon piqued: How do these crosswords get made? He decided to try his hand at building one — a process known as constructing. He contributed several puzzles to the Crossworder’s OWN Newsletter before his first puzzle was published in The Times in 1992 by the crosswords editor Eugene T. Maleska.
Mr. Nosowsky mostly worked alone, making his puzzles by hand with graph paper. He eventually worked on a computer using constructing software, but he still filled out the grids manually, and he always wrote his own clues. Mr. Nosowsky wanted to make sure his finished puzzles displayed the playful wit and humor that technology alone could not achieve.
That playfulness earned him a reputation among solvers and peers alike. Will Shortz, who became the crosswords editor for The Times in 1993, after Mr. Maleska died, has called him “a national treasure,” and he included four of Mr. Nosowsky’s puzzles in his book “Will Shortz Picks His Favorite Puzzles” (2011).
Mr. Nosowsky holds the record for the most puzzles published in The Times — 246 under Mr. Shortz, and an additional eight published under Mr. Maleska. He also made the first crossword to run in the print edition of The Wall Street Journal, in 1998. It was called “Double Digit Inflation.”
In the 2000s, he contributed clues to the novelist Parnell Hall’s “Puzzle Lady” mystery series, which included actual puzzles; the answers would slyly lead readers to the outcome of the whodunit.
Emanuel Ezra Nosowsky was born on Jan. 3, 1932, in San Francisco to Joshua Nosowsky, a cantor better known as Ben, and Julia (Spiegelman) Nosowsky. The family moved to Minnesota in the 1940s, where Emanuel’s father sang at the Temple of Aaron, then the largest congregation in St. Paul.
Mr. Nosowsky earned a bachelor’s degree from the University of Minnesota, then graduated from the university’s medical school in 1956. He served in the Air Force from 1959 to 1961. In 1964, he completed a residency in urology. That year, he also married Debby Kallen.
He ran a private urology practice in Southern California for two years, then moved back to San Francisco, where he spent 17 years working for the health care provider Kaiser Permanente.
Mr. Nosowsky quickly immersed himself in the puzzle making community. He was an enthusiastic attendee of and contributor to the American Crossword Puzzle Tournament, an annual gathering of “puzzleheads” (constructors and editors) that Mr. Shortz has hosted since 1978.
His wife said that being appreciated by crossword colleagues was more meaningful to him than anything he had accomplished in medicine.
Mr. Nosowsky retired from puzzle making in 2010.
Besides his wife, his survivors include their two children, Ethan and Rachel Nosowsky; and five grandchildren.
Mr. Nosowsky had a sense of humor long before his puzzle constructing days. When he was a urologist, his family said, patients would thank him and call him a great doctor. He would answer: “Please tell my mother.”
Charlotte Dulany contributed reporting. Animations by Amy Padnani.
