Civic Watchdog Norman Ream Dies at 77

Norman J. Ream, one of the city’s top government watchdogs and a nationally recognized computer specialist, died Sunday night after a long battle with cancer at Hoag Hospital in Newport Beach.

Ream, 77, was credited with helping establish computer information systems for the Navy. He also founded the San Clemente Taxpayers Assn. in the mid-1980s to keep a close eye on City Hall.

“It’s easy to sit back and do nothing and accept everything as the gospel truth,” said Robert Flynn, a member of Ream’s citizens group, which has met infrequently in recent years. “But Norm felt that sometimes, the gospel should be questioned.”

Fellow community activists said Ream, a certified public accountant by profession, would ask precise, detailed questions of city officials, who occasionally expressed frustration at the amount of information he requested.

“He was a burr in their sides because he wanted to get at the truth,” said Karoline Koester, a former city councilwoman. “The city was very, very fortunate to have him as a watchdog.”

Ream began working as an accountant for IBM in 1947, when computer science was in its infancy.

After establishing computer systems for several private companies and working for the federal government, Ream was appointed in 1965 as the first director of the Institute for Computer Sciences and Technology at the National Bureau of Statistics.

The next year, he was appointed as special assistant to Navy Secretary Paul Nitzi and eventually awarded the Navy’s Distinguished Civilian Service Medal.

In recent years, Ream traveled to Japan and other countries as a computer management consultant.

Last fall, he was honored with induction into the federal government’s Information Resources Management Hall of Fame.

After living in Downey for several years and helping with efforts to incorporate that city, Ream moved to San Clemente in 1970.

He is survived by his wife, Eileen; daughters, Norma Jane Yamaguchi of Stockton, Judy Ellen Miles of Berington, Ill. and Patricia Michel of Inverness, Ill.; a son, John Ream of San Clemente; 14 grandchildren, and one great-grandchild.

Recitation of the Rosary will be at 7 p.m. today at Our Lady of Fatima Roman Catholic Church in San Clemente. A Mass will be said at 10 a.m. Thursday at the church. Interment will be at 1 p.m. at Pacific View Memorial Park in Newport Beach.