The end of a Harvard Magazine tradition

John de Cuevas ’52 will no longer contribute crossword puzzles to Harvard Magazine.

John de Cuevas ’52, who has for decades contributed original crossword puzzles to Harvard Magazine’s print and online editions, has announced that he will no longer produce new puzzles for the series. In an email, he wrote: 

Several readers have asked me why my puzzles no longer appear on the Harvard Magazine website. I answer, because I’m no longer up to speed. I turned 86 last October and in the last few years have experienced a slackening of mental and physical powers. I’m still putting puzzles on my website, www.puzzlecrypt.com, one every month, twelve a year, but the extra ones I was doing for Harvard are more than I can manage now. I’m sorry about that, but it’s out of my reach.

Thanks to all who asked about the puzzles and to the editors of Harvard Magazine for providing me an outlet for them these many years.

The magazine thanks de Cuevas for his many years of service and creativity. Below, find a puzzle he created for the magazine’s September-October 1986 issue, in celebration of Harvard’s 350th anniversary. 


Click image to enlarge. 
Courtesy of Harvard Magazine
Related topics

You might also like

Harvard Magazine March-April 2024 Scavenger Hunt

March-April 2024 Print Issue Scavenger Hunt

Using puzzles to teach physics

In his freshman seminar, Cumrun Vafa uses puzzles to help students understand complex physics.

Paolo Pasco and the art of making crosswords

Paolo Pasco and the art of making crosswords

Most popular

Social Media Use and Adult Depression

A survey reveals suprising links between social media use and depression in adults.

In 2004, a frenzy spread across Harvard Yard in days. Four billion users later, we are only just catching up.

All That’s Unseen charts the Harvard graduate’s uneasy journey from Appalachia to Cambridge and back.  

Explore More From Current Issue

A flooded office scene with computers, a woman working, and a pink sunset backdrop.

A College student’s attempt to recapture the romanticism of the workplace.

Three young women posed side by side against red background.

The 2026-2027 Ledecky and Summer Undergraduate Fellows

Runners compete on a track, with a Harvard athlete in the foreground and others behind.

After a historic 2025-26 season, athletes eye NCAA championships.