As a senior, he ran track, including a leg on the mile relay team, which set the DHS record that lasted until metric distances became the norm. He graduated the University of Southern California in 1972 and began his career in teaching, for the Los Angeles Unified School District.
He earned his Master’s degree in counseling and guidance in 1990, from Cal State Los Angeles. He was employed by LAUSD for 36 years, primarily at the secondary level. He did almost everything one can do in education, including teaching aide, teacher, counselor, assistant principal, and principal.
Terasaki has written a children’s book, “Ghosts for Breakfast,” which was published in 2002. It won Lee and Low Books’ New Voices Honor and was one of Smithsonian magazine’s Notable Books of 2002. He has also written two drama/musicals, “Gardena, U.S.A.” and “A River in the Desert: Christmas in Manzanar.” The backdrop of those plays is the World War II imprisonment of Japanese-American civilians; the plays have been performed in Southern California. He has conducted writing workshops and spoken at writing conferences throughout California.
He retired in 2010, and is currently helping his son establish a church in north Texas; their experiences in establishing the church are on his blog at https://aplanolife.wordpress.com/.