Businessman Not Comfortable With Sudden Notoriety

His angular frame folded onto a cream damask settee in his office, Fred Kavli was flushed with embarrassment over his sudden notoriety.

Despite four successful decades in the sensor business, the 70-year-old Kavli was stunned that a $2.5-million donation--more than $2 million of it in upfront cash--to Thousand Oaks’ Alliance for the Arts could earn him his own media moment. Not to mention his name on an 1,800-seat performing arts theater.

Intensely private, the Norwegian-born physicist said Wednesday that he hopes his donation “helps the community.”

“I certainly do this with a great deal of respect and humility,” he said at the posh Moorpark headquarters of his Kavlico Corp., hours after his contribution was announced. “I’m grateful I can do this for the community. I really am not seeking any publicity.”

The Santa Barbara resident’s contribution to the alliance is one in a string of donations, including gifts to Moorpark College, Boy Scouts, Boys & Girls Club, Casa Pacifica and the Reagan Foundation.

“You work all your life to make some money . . . to be a success in business,” Kavli said. Philanthropy “sort of gives you a purpose to your life.”

A native of Eresfjord, Kavli (pronounced CAV-lee) was trained as a physicist at the Norwegian Institute of Technology. He was lured to California in 1956 by his father’s tales of San Francisco.

Within two years, he had settled and formed his own company of one in Van Nuys. The company, now headquartered in Moorpark, today employs 1,500 people in the manufacturing of sensors that help pilots land airplanes and assist automotive manufacturers in gauging air emissions.

Along the way, the divorced father of two grown children has collected scores of properties along the California coast from San Luis Obispo to Orange counties, property records show.

Kavli demurred when asked questions about his personal and financial life, saying he has attended performances at the Civic Arts Plaza’s main theater, but declining to say which ones. He did admit to designing his lush dark wood-paneled office, with marble accents, and the rest of his shiny office building off California 118.

An avid skier, tennis player and traveler (and about to leave for a three-week tour of the Black Sea and the Mediterranean), Kavli collects art, favoring Impressionist works and pieces from his homeland. In addition to Norwegian and English, he speaks a smattering of French and German.

Those who know Kavli said he has always been an intense and optimistic businessman, who unfailingly gives back to the communities where he lives. His many admirers describe the man with the bright blue eyes as charismatic and focused.

“Fred is my local hero,” said John Newton, a Moorpark land-use consultant who worked with Kavli on zoning issues when Kavlico moved to Moorpark in the mid-1980s. “He is a local businessman, local employer. He came to this community obviously to better his company and his own business objectives, but he turns right around and shares and contributes with the county.”

For instance, when the Boys & Girls Club of Moorpark tried to expand during the early ‘90s, Kavli donated $50,000 toward the purchase of portions of the former Moorpark Memorial High School campus on Casey Road.

Kavli, who was one of the club’s founders, encouraged the city to match his contributions, said Newton, also a founder and a member of the club’s advisory board. Kavli also gives more than $5,000 to the club each year, Newton estimated.

Steven Sill, president of the Moorpark Rotary Club, said Kavli has been generous for many years during the club’s fund-raising activities. The businessman also donated money to help build the track at Moorpark High School’s stadium.

“He contributes to his community, and when he believe something is good and worthwhile for the community, for the county, the country, Fred steps out and helps,” Newton said. “That’s why he deserves every bit of the success he has, just because of his willingness to share.”

Others said Kavli doesn’t come across as a stereotypical chief executive officer.

“If you were to meet him at a cocktail party, you would never in a million years know what he does, because he’s so down-to-earth, nice and affable,” said John Walker, president of Moorpark College.

In 1992, Kavli spoke at the college’s graduation ceremony. He talked about how he left behind his simple life in Norway, came to America with little money and tried to make the best of his circumstances.

“The theme was, ‘It’s entirely up to you.’ ” Walker said. “You can do whatever you want to do. It was inspirational. It was one of the best I’ve heard.”

Elaine Freeman, a Thousand Oaks land-use consultant who worked with Kavli in the 1980s, described Kavli as upbeat.

“You could see why he was a successful person,” Freeman said. “Some people are just solution-oriented. They don’t bring up the negative, always look at the positive. They look at the challenges and see how they can be overcome.”

Said Newton: “Giving up or failing--those are not part of Fred Kavli’s vocabulary.”

Folmar is a Times staff writer and Hong is a correspondent.