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Jeremiah (Jerry) Farrell (b. 1937), is an American professor emeritus of mathematics at Butler University in Indiana. He is well-known for having designed Will Shortz's favorite puzzle, the 1996 "Election Day" crossword in the New York Times. He has also written puzzles for many other books and newspapers, such as Scott Kim's puzzle column for Discover magazine.

Biography

Born in Hastings, Nebraska, his father, Paul Farrell, was a third generation railroad man. His mother, Belle Einsphar, raised Farrell and his two younger sisters. He attended Hastings High School, graduating in 1955, and also working himself for one summer on the railroad, working as a "grinder", whose job was to plane down the railroad tracks so that they stayed smooth.

He later studied at the University of Nebraska, graduating in 1963 with degrees in mathematics, chemistry, and physics. He later obtained a Master's degree in mathematics, and was hired as a teacher in 1966 at Butler University, where he worked for the next 40 years, teaching nearly every subject in the mathematics department. He officially retired in 1994, but has continued to teach every semester.

He started designed many crossword puzzles for the New York Times, starting in the 1970s for Margaret Farrar. In 1996, he designed a famous one called the "Election Day" crossword. It had two correct solutions with the same set of clues, one saying that the "lead story tomorrow" would be "Bob Dole elected", and the other correct solution saying that it would be Bill "Clinton elected". Will Shortz called it an "amazing" feat, and said it's his favorite puzzle.

With his wife Karen, Farrell has organized the biannual "Gatherings for Gardner", which started in 1993 as an invitation-only event for people connected with Martin Gardner. The next one is scheduled for early 2008.

Farrell worked on the railroad for one summer. He worked as a "grinder", beveling the tracks so that they would stay level.

In 2006, Farrell and his wife are taking over as editors and publishers of the quarterly journal called "Word Ways, the Journal of Recreational Linguistics," which was first published in the 1960s.

Farrell is a card-carrying member of the Flat Earth Society, and Dennis E. Shasha, a New York University computer science professor, has awarded him the title of "Omniheurist, First-Class," for being the first person to correctly solve the embedded puzzle in Shasha's book, Puzzling Adventures, which led to a specific location in Greenwich Village for a scheduled meeting with the author. (Indianapolis Star)

Contributed works

• Zen and the Art of Magic Squares
• A.K. Peters publications (where he is called a "mathemagician")
• Discover magazine

References

• NYT "Election Day" crossword
• New York Sun, "A Washington Square Park Puzzle Is Solved", May 19-21, 2006
• Indianapolis Star, May 25, 2006, "Butler Prof Figures It Out"

• American academics
• Puzzle designers
• People from Indiana
• Living people
• 1937 births