Chris Haney | Trivial Pursuit creator, 59

Chris Haney, 59, a cocreator of the popular Trivial Pursuit board game, died Monday at a Toronto hospital. Scott Abbott, who created Trivial Pursuit with Mr. Haney, said Mr. Haney died after a long illness.

Mr. Haney worked for the Canadian Press and the Montreal Gazette newspaper as a photo editor before going into the board-game business. He teamed with Abbott, a Canadian Press sports reporter, in 1979 to invent Trivial Pursuit.

"He was one of the most knowledgeable, widely read people I've encountered," Abbott said of his friend, who was a voracious newspaper reader. "You could always discuss the affairs of the day."

Abbott said he and Mr. Haney always had a "blind faith" that the game would be successful if it got to market but had no idea just how successful it would become. Released in 1982, it took off after a slow start, and the two sold the rights to the toy giant Hasbro in 2008 for $80 million.

"We didn't realize it would transcend games players and become, with Cabbage Patch Kids, what Time magazine in 1984 called an American social phenomenon," Abbott said.

- AP