William Tuohy, correspondent was 83

Pulitzer-winning retired L.A. Times foreign correspondent Bill Tuohy died this morning after undergoing eleven hours of open heart surgery at St. John's in Santa Monica, family friend Dodi Fromson let us know tonight. Tuohy won the Pulitzer Prize for international reporting in 1969 for his coverage of the Vietnam War. In his 29 years with the LAT, he served as bureau chief in Saigon, Beirut, Rome, Bonn and London, says the paper's obituary.

"Most journalists are slobs and look like slobs, but Bill looked like what most people think a foreign correspondent ought to look like: He was tall, had this beautiful shock of white hair and was always impeccably dressed," [former Washington Post correspondent Jonathan] Randal said....

Said Alvin Shuster, who succeeded [Robert] Gibson as The Times' foreign editor: "You could tell what he did for a living by his aura, his enthusiasm and his passion. He was well-liked by his sources -- by generals in Vietnam, sheiks in the Middle East and blue-bloods in London. He was a model for foreign correspondents of his time."

Tuohy's books: "Dangerous Company" (1987), "The Bravest Man: The Story of Richard O'Kane and U.S. Submariners in the Pacific War" (2001), and "America's Fighting Admirals: Winning the War at Sea in World War II" (2007).

Also: Joe Reyes Nevarez, who began at the Times as a copy boy and worked there for 47 years, mostly as a reporter specializing in the oil industry, died in Monterey Park this week at age 97. There are different dates and facts going around, but the mortuary's obit says he was born in Tepehuanes, Durango and wrote for the paper at Lincoln High School. The California Chicano News Media Association, where he was a founding member, honored him in 1985 as a pioneer in Los Angeles journalism. More from blogger Victoria Delgadillo at LA Eastside.