A well-regarded attorney and civic leader, Paul Ziffren was chairman of the Los Angeles Olympic Organizing Committee (LAOOC), that staged the 1984 Olympic Games.

Upon the death of Ziffren, Los Angeles Mayor Tom Bradley said, “One of his greatest contributions, and a legacy of his leadership, were the Olympic Games of 1984. He chaired the Organizing Committee, which produced the greatest Games in the history of the Olympic movement.”

A Los Angeles Times editorial said: “Only the most optimistic could have predicted that the Games would prove such a winner. And fewer still had the chutzpah to say so. Ziffren was one of them. For 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. Yet many people were affected at least indirectly by the public activities he worked at so effectively, usually behind the scenes.”