James B. Rea; Mutual Fund Co-Founder

James B. Rea, 79, mutual fund manager and jazz pianist, who regularly surfed well into his 70s, earned a Massachusetts Institute of Technology doctorate in aeronautical engineering and once flew Boeing 314s for Pan American Airways. He was board chairman of Rea-Graham Funds, which once increased 253% on a total return basis in 10 years. A native of Honolulu, he was an engineer on ocean liners, taught piano and accordion and led an orchestra at Lake Tahoe. He was a Convair test pilot in the 1940s and head of systems analysis in Douglas Aircraft Co.’s missiles division. He was an adviser to large corporations on acquisitions before founding the Rea, Graham-Plan Fund in 1976 with Benjamin Graham, the acknowledged father of modern securities analysis. In Malibu, where Rea was known as “Snodgrass,” his surfing cronies were largely unaware of his academic, engineering and business background. On Sept. 21 in Los Angeles.