Ex-School Chief Named to Hospital District Board

James Riewer, a Redondo Beach resident and former superintendent of the South Bay Union High School District, was appointed Friday to the board of the South Bay Hospital District.

He was named to fill former board member Mary Davis’ unexpired term, which runs until November, 1992. Davis, a board member since 1983, resigned in January. The district grants money for public health programs in Redondo Beach, Hermosa Beach and Manhattan Beach.

A hospital board member during the 1970s, Riewer was a compromise choice after the board failed to break a deadlock between candidates Dick Fruin, a former board member who was defeated for reelection in 1984 and failed in a 1986 attempt to return to the board, and Jeremy Evans, a former legal counsel to the hospital district.

Riewer, who was appointed on a 4-0 vote, said the action “came as a complete surprise. . . . It kind of tickles my funny bone.” Currently a member of the Los Angeles County Commission on Human Relations, he headed the high school district from 1970 until retiring in 1979.