Stanley Newman
Encyclopedia
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
puzzle creator, editor, and publisher. Newman has been the editor of the Newsday
Newsday
Newsday is a daily American newspaper that primarily serves Nassau and Suffolk counties and the New York City borough of Queens on Long Island, although it is sold throughout the New York metropolitan area...
Sunday crossword
Crossword
A crossword is a word puzzle that normally takes the form of a square or rectangular grid of white and shaded squares. The goal is to fill the white squares with letters, forming words or phrases, by solving clues which lead to the answers. In languages that are written left-to-right, the answer...
puzzle since 1988 and the editor of the Newsday daily crossword puzzle since 1992. He is also a trivia buff and the co-author of a trivia encyclopedia, 15,003 Answers.
Newman is a native of Brooklyn
Brooklyn
Brooklyn is the most populous of New York City's five boroughs, with nearly 2.6 million residents, and the second-largest in area. Since 1896, Brooklyn has had the same boundaries as Kings County, which is now the most populous county in New York State and the second-most densely populated...
, New York
New York
New York is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. It is the nation's third most populous state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...
, and is a Phi Beta Kappa graduate of Brooklyn College
Brooklyn College
Brooklyn College is a senior college of the City University of New York, located in Brooklyn, New York, United States.Established in 1930 by the New York City Board of Higher Education, the College had its beginnings as the Downtown Brooklyn branches of Hunter College and the City College of New...
, where he majored in mathematics
Mathematics
Mathematics is the study of quantity, space, structure, and change. Mathematicians seek out patterns and formulate new conjectures. Mathematicians resolve the truth or falsity of conjectures by mathematical proofs, which are arguments sufficient to convince other mathematicians of their validity...
. He went on to earn a master’s degree in statistics
Statistics
Statistics is the study of the collection, organization, analysis, and interpretation of data. It deals with all aspects of this, including the planning of data collection in terms of the design of surveys and experiments....
from Rutgers University
Rutgers University
Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey , is the largest institution for higher education in New Jersey, United States. It was originally chartered as Queen's College in 1766. It is the eighth-oldest college in the United States and one of the nine Colonial colleges founded before the American...
.
Newman's puzzle career started after he won the inaugural U.S. Open Crossword Championship
United States Open (crosswords)
The United States Open was a crossword puzzle-solving tournament that lasted from 1982 to 1986. Sponsored by Games Magazine and directed by Will Shortz, it attracted thousands of potential competitors and was, along with the American Crossword Puzzle Tournament, one of the two largest crossword...
in 1982. He also won the American Crossword Puzzle Tournament
American Crossword Puzzle Tournament
The American Crossword Puzzle Tournament is a crossword-solving tournament held annually in late February or early March. Founded in 1978 by Will Shortz, who still directs the tournament, it is the oldest and largest crossword tournament held in the United States; the 2009 event attracted nearly...
that year. Newman started a crossword newsletter in 1983 and began creating his own crosswords soon thereafter. He is the author or editor of over 100 books and is the current world record holder for the fastest solving of a New York Times crossword. http://www.harpercollins.com/authors/7133/Stanley_Newman/index.aspx
In 1990, Newman appeared as a contestant on The Challengers
The Challengers (game show)
The Challengers was an American syndicated game show from Ron Greenberg Productions, Dick Clark Productions, and Buena Vista Television. The show was hosted by Dick Clark. The show premiered on September 3, 1990 and ended on August 30, 1991...
television
Television
Television is a telecommunication medium for transmitting and receiving moving images that can be monochrome or colored, with accompanying sound...
game show
Game show
A game show is a type of radio or television program in which members of the public, television personalities or celebrities, sometimes as part of a team, play a game which involves answering questions or solving puzzles usually for money and/or prizes...
and was its biggest winner, finishing with a grand total of $112,480. Over half of that came from two Ultimate Challenge wins and his win in the Invitational Tournament of Champions. (Unfortunately for Newman, his final day ended with him in negative territory and thus he was unable to compete in the Final Challenge.) He currently is a regular contestant at the Allentown, Pennsylvania
Allentown, Pennsylvania
Allentown is a city located in Lehigh County, Pennsylvania, in the United States. It is Pennsylvania's third most populous city, after Philadelphia and Pittsburgh, and the 215th largest city in the United States. As of the 2010 census, the city had a total population of 118,032 and is currently...
Trivia Bowl, held twice annually.
Newman lives in Massapequa Park
Massapequa Park, New York
The Village of Massapequa Park is a village located within the Town of Oyster Bay in Nassau County, New York, USA. The population was 17,008 at the 2010 census.-History:...
, New York with his wife and has three grown children.