Name Eugene Maleska Successor Will Shortz | Predecessor Will Weng Employer The New York Times | |
 | ||
Born January 6, 1916 ( 1916-01-06 ) Jersey City Title Crossword puzzle editor Died August 3, 1993, Daytona Beach, Florida, United States Books Children's Word Games and Crossword Puzzles Education Montclair State University, Regis High School, Harvard University | ||
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 editor for the New York Times in 1977, replacing Will Weng. In 1993, Maleska was succeeded by Will Shortz, who remains New York Times crossword editor to this day. Besides numerous collections of puzzles, Maleska also published Maleska's Favorite Word Games and A Pleasure in Words, which included a chapter on constructing crossword puzzles.
Biography
Maleska was born on January 6, 1916, in Jersey City. He graduated from Regis High School in New York City. He received his bachelor's and master's degrees from Montclair State College and began his career teaching Latin and English at a junior high school in Palisades Park, New Jersey.
He married Jean (c1915-1983) and had two children: Merryl Maleska Wilbur and Gary Maleska. Eugene moved to Frederick Douglass Junior High School in Manhattan in 1940 as an English teacher. In 1946 he became an assistant to the principal at P.S. 169, then principal at P.S. 192 in the early 1950s. He took a yearlong sabbatical to attend Harvard University, where he earned a doctorate in education. He then was the principal at J.H.S. 164 from 1955 to 1958. From 1962 to 1967, he was an assistant superintendent of schools in District 8 in the Bronx. He then spent three years as an associate director of the Center for Urban Education before returning as the superintendent of District 8. He was the only person to have a New York City public school named for him during his lifetime: Intermediate School 174 in the Bronx, dedicated in 1973, the year he retired as superintendent. The first principal of this school was Chester Cohen, and the first Assistant Principal was Stephen Wulfson. Eugene T. Maleska was an amateur poet and published a book of poems, Sun & Shadows in 1961.
Maleska married Annrea (Neill) Sutton 9 Feb 1985, Barnstable, Massachusetts, USA. Ref: New York Times 10 Feb 1985. They divorced at some point and Maleska married Carol Atkinson as his third wife on March 11, 1992. Carol had previously been married. Maleska died in Daytona Beach, Florida in 1993 of throat cancer. He also had a home in Wareham, Massachusetts.