Michael Qualls, 63; Ex-Journalist Became L.A. Agency Spokesman

Michael Qualls, 63, a former journalist who was a spokesman for the Los Angeles Department of Public Works, died of a brain hemorrhage Sunday at Queen of the Valley Hospital in West Covina, said Cora Jackson Fossett, the department’s public information director.

Qualls was found unconscious Saturday at his West Covina home.

He spent 20 years in journalism, including more than a decade in Los Angeles beginning in 1974. At the now-defunct Herald Examiner, he was an assistant city editor and political editor before becoming managing editor of City News Service.

“He was a really good political writer for the Herald Examiner when it was a very aggressive, splashy sort of local paper. He was a good rival,” said Bill Boyarsky, a former city editor, political writer and columnist for The Times.

In 1985, Qualls became a spokesman for then-City Atty. James K. Hahn and kept that job until he joined the Public Works Department in 2001 to oversee media relations.

He was born Aug. 10, 1942, in Caledonia, Mo., and earned a bachelor’s degree in journalism from the University of Missouri. In the late 1960s, Qualls served in the Army in South Vietnam.