Last week, Carl Terzian completed his 45th year in business – and an even longer tenure as head cheerleader for two Valley-area universities. Terzian, the 78-year-old owner of L.A. public relations agency Carl Terzian Associates, is the longest-running board member at Woodbury University in Burbank, having served since 1979. He also helped found California Lutheran University in Thousand Oaks, and his firm still hosts a monthly breakfast or lunch for school President Chris Kimball. “The guy’s got the biggest Rolodex in L.A., and he routinely uses it on our behalf,” Kimball said. “Carl has been involved with us from the beginning. One of the missions Carl has always felt is to keep us connected to L.A. so we’re not just a Ventura County institution.” Terzian, who graduated from USC with a political science degree, served as a dean at Woodbury in the 1950s while he was only in his 20s. One day his Lutheran minister introduced him to Orville Dahl, an academic who was hired by a Lutheran group to establish a school in California. “The three of us conceived of a school called Cal Lutheran College,” Terzian recalled. The original plan was to buy houses in Hollywood and build an urban campus. But when a Conejo Valley farmer offered to donate 130 acres, Ventura County became the obvious answer. The school was established in 1959 with Dahl as president. Terzian, who once considered entering the Lutheran ministry, is a legend in the L.A. public relations industry. His firm produces networking events for law firms, investment bankers and non-profit organizations looking for donors. Terzian himself manages the guest list, pulled from a database of 10,000 people he personally knows. . “Our firm has guided a lot of the public awareness for the schools,” he said. “I’ve been blessed by knowing and fulfilling my life’s mission, bringing people together to help them become successful and work for the common good.” – Joel Russell
