Harvey Rosenfield, author of Proposition 103, the landmark 1988 initiative that rolled back and regulated all insurance rates in California, witnessed Reich's hard work as a reporter.
"There was so much confusion over the tens of millions of dollars the insurance industry was spending against Proposition 103, and there were four other competing initiatives, and nobody knew which one was truly in the best interest of the public," said Rosenfield, founder of Consumer Watchdog, a Los Angeles-based nonprofit.
"Ken covered that campaign day by day, week after week, for a year. Every reporter in California followed Ken's coverage. And, in my view, if it weren't for the unbelievable tenacity and textbook journalism that Ken Reich did, Proposition 103 would not have passed. He was the quintessential journalist."
Times colleagues remember Reich for being an outspoken presence in the newsroom.
Media columnist James Rainey recalled, "All of us who sat in Ken's orbit would be both entertained and, occasionally, appalled by the high decibel rants that he would employ on sources."
One afternoon, Rainey recalled, "Ken uncorked on one caller for a good two or three minutes, then took a breath to allow her a short rebuttal, which he quickly countered with this: 'My good woman, I did not call you a Nazi. I called you a fascist. There is a big difference.' Then he hung up."
Reich was born in Los Angeles on March 7, 1938, and began his journalism career at 14 as a sports reporter for the Riverside Press-Enterprise.
He received a bachelor's degree in government from Dartmouth College in 1960 and a master's degree in political science from UC Berkeley in 1962.
He worked in UPI's Sacramento bureau from 1962-63 and was a reporter for Life magazine from 1963-65.
He retired from The Times in 2004.
More recently, he launched a blog -- takebackthetimes.blogspot.com -- that advocated returning The Times to local ownership.
"He also expanded it to comment on politics," said his daughter, adding that he posted his last blog entry at 12:20 a.m. Monday.
Two hours later, in one of his last e-mails, Reich wrote to Dean Baquet, The Times' former editor who is now at the New York Times, suggesting that Baquet look at the series of blogs he recently had written "on 75 L.A. Times staff members who have lost their jobs under Tribune."
Said Kathleen Reich on Monday: "My father was absolutely passionate that the mission of journalism was to bring the truth to people. And he worked tirelessly -- and outspokenly -- to that end, up to the last day of his life."
In addition to his daughter, Reich, who was divorced, is survived by his son, David; his sister, Carolyn Shadduck;and two grandchildren.
A funeral service will be held at 2 p.m. Thursday at Mt. Sinai Hollywood Hills, 5950 Forest Lawn Drive.
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dennis.mclellan@latimes.com
