Pillar of Achievement - 2000

A high regarded attorney and civic leader, Paul Ziffren was Chairman of the Los Angeles Olympic Organizing Committee that staged the 1984 Olympic Games. Upon his death in 1991, a Los Angeles Times editorial wrote: “Although the hands-on operator who put the Games together was Peter Ueberroth, it was Ziffren, as Chairman of the LAOOC, who coalesced corporate support behind the Games and gave Ueberroth the necessary freedom to make things work. It is fitting that the softspoken civic leader wielded his influence so quietly that most residents probably don’t know who he was.”

The Amateur Athletic Foundation Library in Los Angeles, arguably the most extensive sports library in the world, is named the Paul Ziffren Library.