Marshall Berges; Journalist, Author Wrote Personality Portraits for Times

Marshall Berges, a journalist and author whose fascination with the written word began as a boy in Chicago when he sold magazines in order to buy his first typewriter, has died after a lengthy battle with cancer.

A longtime staff writer for the Los Angeles Times, he had been a bureau chief for Time magazine and author of books, among them the authorized biography of this newspaper. He was 67, and died at a convalescent hospital in Santa Monica.

He attended Marquette University and then served in the Navy during World War II. He went to work for Time in 1946 and eventually became Los Angeles bureau chief, a post he held for 10 years before joining The Times in 1970.

At Time magazine he wrote cover stories on John F. Kennedy, Ronald Reagan,, Norton Simon, Dag Hammarskjold and many others.

At The Times he wrote more than 300 personality portraits for the former Sunday magazine Home, and in 1984 published “The Life and Times of Los Angeles,” a historical account of the newspaper.

He also was author of “Corporations and the Quality of Life.”

His last series for the newspaper was “Survival in the ‘80s,” a look at the ways in which Southern Californians live.

Survivors include his wife, Mildred; a son, Edward; a daughter, Renee Harrah, and three grandchildren. Services will be private.