Former Times reporter Ken Reich dies

Reich worked at the paper for more than three decades and served as The Times' main reporter covering the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics. Reich died in his sleep last night, according to close friend Anton Calleia.

While he retired in 2004, Reich remained very much interested in the goings-ons at the paper and maintained a blog, Take Back The Times,  that was highly critical of  Times' management and ongoing changes.

Times staff is working on a full obituary.

-- Jesus Sanchez

Comments

[Tim McGarry]

Ken was a very good reporter. I especially admired his coverage of earthquakes and seismology, both for the clarity he brought to the subject and for the way he avoided sensationalizing matters. I also appreciated his fairness as a consumer columnist, something I experienced firsthand as spokesman for a bank that drew his critical scrutiny more than once. He was tough but always took pains to give his readers a look at both sides of the issue at hand. I got to know him a little and came to admire him for his intelligence and for the passion he brought to issues he cared about (including the fate of the newspaper for which he worked for so many years). A good storyteller, a good man. I'm very sorry he's gone.

[Jim Schachter]

I had been a reporter at the Times for about five years when I first tried out for an editing job on the State Desk, to which Ken was then assigned. My very first task -- I can only assume it was a hazing ritual -- was to edit a Reich article about the Coliseum. Honestly, I couldn't make heads or tails of his lede, so I proposed some changes and sent the article back for him to review. Well, I got the classic, volcanic Reich reaction, something along the lines of, "who do you think you are, changing my copy? if you ever, ever touch a word of my copy again...." He went on and on this way until -- mostly trembling -- I interrupted to say something like, "But if I didn't understand what you mean, how are readers going to understand what you mean?" At which point, Ken came up with a perfectly clear new lede. Suddenly, I was an editor at one of America's great newspapers -- thanks to Ken Reich.

[frank sotomayor]

Remembering Ken Reich:
When L.A. won the bid to host the 1984 Summer Olympics, Ken went after the story like a bulldog, fulfilling the role he perceived for himself: a watchdog for the public. (I was his editor in the Times Metro section during that time.) Aware of the financial debacle of the 1976 Olympics in Montreal, Ken's aggressive reporting ensured that L.A. taxpayers would not foot the bill for the Games. Instead, a private group, the Los Angeles Olympic Organizing Committee, was established and made a huge surplus from the Games.
Thanks, Ken. We'll always remember you for your passion for quality, public service journalism.