Utah grocer Paul Ream dies at 92

PROVO — Paul Ream left his name behind on a Provo street and 13 Utah grocery stores when he died Tuesday in Salt Lake City at 92.

Mr. Ream was a major figure in Provo beginning in 1949, when he opened his first store at 890 W. Center. The store still operates under the Ream's name.

His most famous store, known affectionately as the Ream's Turtle, was demolished in 2006 to make way for the Alpine Village condominiums and shops — on the corner of Paul Ream Avenue (1450 North) and Freedom Boulevard.

The street was named for Mr. Ream in 1990 at the request of the Council on Aging. Mr. Ream established an endowment for Provo's Eldred Center for senior citizens in the 1970s. The fund grew to more than $1 million.

The Ream's Turtle was an odd, gray, turtle shell-shaped former skating rink built in 1961 that Mr. Ream converted into a grocery store in 1967. It was a magnet for shoppers from as far away as Price, Cedar City and Heber City, in part because it was a leading supplier for Tony Lama boots and Levi's jeans.

Mr. Ream was inducted into the Utah Sports Hall of Fame in 2005. He provided eight scholarships a year through the hall, a tradition that will continue because Mr. Ream donated $150,000 to the program last year.

"He was a great man," the Hall of Fame's past president, Berdean Jarman, said.

Mr. Ream's company operates 10 grocery stores in Provo and Salt Lake, Wasatch and Davis counties. His children and grandchildren own four separate stores with the Ream's name in Utah County.

In September, a grandson, also named Paul Ream, removed all the alcohol and tobacco from the Provo store he owns, Ream's Family Foods, 2250 N. University Parkway. He did so in part because his 9-year-old daughter Shyanne, the great-granddaughter of the grocery store magnate, completed her school's D.A.R.E. program and then asked her father why he sold drugs at his store.

Other Ream's stores continue to sell the products.

Mr. Ream was born in 1915. His experiences during the Depression informed his work ethic and generosity. He began working in the grocery business in 1944, but it was in the late 1940s and early 1950s, after he opened that first store, that he became a millionaire by selling World War II surplus goods in bulk at 10 percent above wholesale.

A viewing is scheduled Wednesday from 6 to 8 p.m. at Berg Mortuary, 185 E. Center, Provo.

Another viewing is scheduled the following day from 10 to 11:30 a.m. at the Millcreek Stake Center, 4220 S. Jeanine Drive (400 East), Murray, followed by funeral services at noon.