Carl Terzian Scholarship

Often those who achieve success in the world of commerce are not as successful in living a spiritual life, but Carl Terzian achieved great success in both temporal and spiritual worlds. He had a thriving career in the field of public relations and marketing, and he was also a faithful Lutheran. His Armenian-born parents took him to Hope Lutheran Church in Hollywood when he was five years old, and Carl maintained his relationship with the church throughout his life.

As an undergraduate student at the University of Southern California, Carl studied political science. As a graduate student in the late 1950s he served as a goodwill ambassador under President Eisenhower. Later he joined the faculty of Woodbury University in Burbank where he taught political science and public speaking. In 1965 Charles Luckman, the architect of Century City, asked him to be his public relations director. From that position Carl went on to open his own communications business, Carl Terzian Associates of Los Angeles. About that same time, because Carl had a definite sense of a calling for his life, he became involved in the early beginnings of California Lutheran College, serving as one of its first regents.

Carl Terzian was well-known in the Los Angeles corporate community. He was described as an extraordinary human being, civic leader, entrepreneur and faithful churchman. As part of the Los Angeles business community, Carl had another ambitious goal. He had served on countless nonprofit boards, and he believed strongly that other business people should do the same, sharing their time and expertise with organizations that could benefit from their volunteerism. To make this happen, he held a series of networking breakfasts to which he invited various colleagues. The agenda for the meetings was to acquaint them with each other and introduce them to opportunities for community service work such as service on nonprofit boards. In the meetings Carl also hoped they would discover and share their values, well beyond the information contained on their business cards. Carl was especially successful at playing matchmaker between these corporate leaders and the nonprofit boards that needed their specific talents and abilities.

One of the boards on which Carl himself served for 10 years was CHELA Financial, Inc. of San Francisco. CHELA was an acronym for California Higher Education Loan Association. As Carl’s service on that board came to a close, CHELA decided to endow a scholarship in his name at an institution of his choice. Fortunately, Carl chose Cal Lutheran. Although the Carl Terzian Scholarship is discretionary, preference is usually given to a student preparing for a career in public relations and/or marketing.