Alan Williams; Ex-Poulson Aide
Alan J. Williams, chief executive assistant to former Los Angeles Mayor Norris Poulson and later public relations representative for the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California, died Sept. 22 in San Francisco of cancer. He was 66.
He was a reporter for the old Los Angeles Examiner when he joined Poulson’s staff as press secretary in 1953. Two years later the mayor named him his chief aide. He became Poulson’s leading spokesman and a “deputy mayor” during the controversial months of 1955 when the city was wrestling with a ban on backyard burning in an effort to reduce smog levels in the basin.
He joined MWD in 1961 and managed public relations for both the local office and the staffs in Sacramento and Washington. He also was general manager of the Colorado River Assn.
Williams is survived by his wife Mary of Los Osos, where they lived after his retirement, three sons and a daughter.
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