Education
Jarvis was raised in the Auckland suburb of Remuera and attended Auckland Grammar School from 1958 to 1960, where he played in the 1st Eleven, a team that included two New Zealand cricket captains, Mark Burgess and Hedley Howarth, and the Test player Ross Morgan.
Career
On leaving school he began work as a sales representative for the former Auckland stock and station company, Alfred Buckland & Sons Limited., selling textiles such as jute wool bales, which the company imported. He then went into business on his own account, forming Jarvis Trading Company Limited., a very successful company, importing and manufacturing similar products from premises in East Tamaki. He also became involved in the development and sale of industrial land in East Tamaki.
A clever, honest and resolute businessman, Terry was one of the people responsible for bringing Sky television to New Zealand.
He also became involved in the breeding and racing of thoroughbreds, while owning the The Oaks stud property near Cambridge, in the Waikato. In 2009, as the neighbour of Sir Edmund Hillary, Terry bought this New Zealand icons house in order to extend his own property.
The house, after being gifted to the nation, was moved to Sir Edmund Hillary Collegiate in the Auckland suburb of Otara in 2011. During 2010 Terry was the major sponsor of the Terry Jarvis Centre, an indoor sports facility owned by the Remuera Parnell Sports Committee Charitable Trust and managed by the Parnell Cricket Club, Terry"s former club, located on Shore Road, close to his childhood home in Portland Road, Remuera.