University to Celebrate Founding

Woodbury University will celebrate its 114th annual Founders’ Day today with awards presentations, turn-of-the-century memorabilia and music at its Glenoaks Boulevard campus.

The university will honor the Morra family, The Times and four prominent alumnae during the 2 p.m. ceremony, said Toni Valley Johnston, a university spokeswoman.

Times Mirror Co. and Woodbury were both founded in 1884 and the two have been linked together since then, Johnston said. The Times helped fund the school’s library that is named for the newspaper.

The university will bestow its Woodbury University Heritage Award on The Times. Steve Meier, vice president and government affairs, corporate secretary, will accept the award on the newspaper’s behalf.

Another Heritage Award will be given to members of the Morra family. The late Antonio Morra was a major Burbank landowner who once owned the land where the university now stands, Johnston.

The university will also honor Clara Woodbury, who founded the school with her husband, F.C. Woodbury.

Also, four alumnae will be honored: Helen Gurley Brown, longtime editor in chief of Cosmopolitan magazine; Georgia Bullock, the first appointed female Superior Court judge in Los Angeles; Josephine Gradillas of Esquire Deposition Services, a national court reporting company, and Star Parker, president and founder of Coalition on Urban Renewal, Johnston said.

Founders’ Day provides an opportunity for the community to become acquainted with the school’s rich history, Johnston said.