Bill Thurman, Publisher of Aliso Viejo Review, Dies at 64 : Newsman: Activist succumbs to heart attack. He drove a red Bentley and delighted at being the center of attention.

Bill Thurman, who drove a flashy red Bentley and started his own community newspaper nearly two years ago, died at home here Tuesday after a heart attack. He was 64.

Friends and family remembered him this week as a flamboyant, feisty publisher who grew involved in the community after he started the Aliso Viejo Review in October, 1991.

“He was always gregarious, that was his nature,” said his wife, Phyllis Thurman, who worked with her husband at the biweekly newspaper. “He just wanted to make sure when he entered a room, people would turn. He always had a big smile on his face. Bill could really work a room.”

People who grew to know Thurman after he started the newspaper said the new publisher caught the journalism bug in a big way.

“It really bit him,” said Art Cook, director of the Aliso Viejo Events Committee, of which Thurman was a member. “In the last year or so he was all over the place. He really loved the journalism business.”

Cook said the license plate on Thurman’s Bentley said it all: NEWSBIZ.

Eight years ago, the Dana Point resident was one of the first people in South County to start an electronic publication, a computer trade journal called the News & Review, said Phyllis Thurman.

In a 1991 interview, Thurman said that he saw the need for a newspaper in Aliso Viejo, a planned community of 15,000 that is expected to more than triple in population when built out in 2005.

After the first edition of his tabloid came out in October, 1991, Thurman involved himself in civic events in Aliso Viejo, Laguna Niguel and Laguna Hills.

“He was having fun with it,” Phyllis Thurman said. “The highlight of his ownership was the people he met in the community. He loved them.”

Thurman had served in the Laguna Niguel and Aliso Viejo chambers of commerce and was active in several youth sports organizations. He was nominated for Laguna Niguel’s Citizen of the Year in 1992.

“I can remember sitting with him after meetings” of the Aliso Viejo Activities Committee, said Cook. “He was always there laughing, having a beer.”

“As a publisher he could have gone home after work and not gotten involved,” Cook said. “Aliso Viejo is much, much richer because of him.”

Phyllis Thurman said the Review has done well.

“We’re very proud of what we’ve done here,” she said. “The Aliso Viejo Review is going forward.”

Before entering the publishing business, Thurman sold computers for several major corporations, including IBM, Microdata and RCA.

In addition to his wife, Thurman is survived by a son, Scott Thurman, and two sisters.

At his request, there will be no funeral. His wish was to be cremated and have his ashes spread over the ocean off Dana Point.