Vartan Gregorian
Encyclopedia
Vartan Gregorian is an Armenian-American
academic, serving as the president of Carnegie Corporation of New York
. He is an ethnic Armenian
, born in Iran
.
He came to the United States in 1956 as a freshman, attending Stanford University, where he completed his B.A., with honors, in two years. After receiving his dual PhD in history and humanities
from Stanford University
in 1964, Gregorian served on the faculties at several American universities before joining the faculty of the University of Pennsylvania
in 1972 as Tarzian Professor of Armenian and Caucasian History and Professor of South Asian history. In 1974, he was appointed UPenn's founding dean of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences and became Provost in 1978. From 1981 to 1989, Gregorian served as president of the New York Public Library
, an eight-year tenure which would prove one of his most lasting legacies.
In 1988, he was chosen to become president
of Brown University
, where he served for the next nine years. In 1997, he was selected as president of philanthropic
Carnegie Corporation of New York
. He is also a trustee of the Museum of Modern Art
, the American Academy in Berlin, the Institute for Advanced Study, and Brandeis University, among other institutions.
He has received the National Humanities Medal
. In 2004, he received the Presidential Medal of Freedom
, the highest civilian award in the United States. Gregorian is on the advisory board of USC Center on Public Diplomacy
, the Brookings Doha Center
and is a member of the editorial board of the Encyclopædia Britannica
. President Barack Obama appointed him to serve on the President's Commission on White House Fellowships.
A Phi Beta Kappa and a Ford Foundation
Foreign Area Training Fellow, he is a recipient of numerous fellowships, including those from the John Simon Guggenheim Foundation, the American Council of Learned Societies, the Social Science Research Council
and the American Philosophical Society
. He is also a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts of Sciences.
He has also received honorary degrees from nearly seventy institutions. He documented much of his private life in his 2003 autobiography The Road to Home: My Life and Times.
, Iran, to Samuel B. Gregorian and Shushanik G. Mirzaian. His family belonged to the minority Armenian
Christian population. When Vartan Gregorian was six years old his mother, then twenty-six, died of pneumonia. His father, who worked for the Anglo-Iranian Oil Company in Abadan, was away from home much of the time, and hence Gregorian and his younger sister Ojik were raised by Voski Mirzaian, his maternal grandmother.
French vice-consul
in Tabriz at the time, suggested to Gregorian that he ought to go to Beirut, Lebanon
to continue his education and provided him with three letters of introduction: one to the head of the Lebanese Internal Security Agency, one to the Collège Arménien, and one to a hotel where he could stay. Gregorian also did chores for another individual in Tabriz, an optometrist named Hrary Stepanian, who eventually helped Gregorian obtain his passport to get to Lebanon:
The head of the Armenian Relief Society
of Lebanon arranged to provide Gregorian with meals for a monthly cost of US$6.15 as well as lodging. He learned French and completed his secondary education at the Collège Arménien in Beirut. Simon Vratzian, former prime minister of the pre-Soviet
Democratic Republic of Armenia
and then director of the college, provided Gregorian with the advice and assistance that helped him make arrangements to attend a university in the United States. In 1956, Gregorian applied to only two universities—the University of California, Berkeley
, and Stanford University
—and was admitted by each. Stanford's acceptance arrived by airmail
months before Berkeley's did by surface mail, at which point Gregorian had already enrolled at Stanford.
due to his relationship with his freshman mentor Wayne S. Vucinich, a historian of Eastern Europe and the Ottoman Empire
. He completed his B.A. in history and humanities
with honors in 1958; the topic of his thesis was "Toynbee
and Islam."
While a student at Stanford, he again received provisions from Armenians
who were strangers to him. He explains how this consistent benevolence reaffirmed his faith in the Armenian community in the diaspora
and diaspora communities in general:
He would go on to receive his PhD in history and humanities
from Stanford in 1964, writing a dissertation entitled "Traditionalism and Modernism in Islam." The topic of his dissertation was related to an ongoing research project which he began in 1961, after receiving a Ford Foundation
fellowship which took him to England, France, Lebanon, Pakistan, Afghanistan and India. These experiences and his related research formed the basis for his first book, The Emergence of Modern Afghanistan: Politics of Reform and Modernization, 1840–1946 (1969, Stanford University Press
).
(now San Francisco State University) upon returning to California from Afghanistan in 1962. He left San Francisco State in 1968 and for a brief stint served as Associate Professor at UCLA
. That same year he joined the faculty of the University of Texas at Austin
, where he remained until 1972. He received the title of Professor at UT Austin, and also served as the Director of Special Programs there from 1970–1972.
Gregorian had been recruited to UT Austin by John Silber
, then Dean of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences who was eventually fired at the urging of the Chairman of the Board of Trustees of the university, Frank Erwin, over a disagreement about whether to increase the university's student population and expand the university. Gregorian himself resigned in protest of the issue, but did not follow Silber and a number of other faculty members in their exodus to Boston University
. Rather, in 1972, Gregorian accepted the position of Tarzian
Professor of Armenian and Caucasian History and Professor of South Asian history at the University of Pennsylvania
, an endowed professorship which allowed him to teach Armenian, South Asian, and European intellectual history.
In 1974, Gregorian was named Dean of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences at the University of Pennsylvania, the first person to hold this position. The Faculty of Arts and Sciences brought together 28 departments, 33 graduate groups, eight special programs and offices, 528 faculty members, some 5,500 undergraduates and 2,500 graduate students, making it the largest single component of the university, In 1978, Gregorian became Provost, chief academic officer of the university.
In 1980, then-president of the University of Pennsylvania Martin Meyerson
announced his retirement, and there was speculation that Gregorian would succeed him. In fact, Gregorian had been offered the chancellorship at UC Berkeley
, but had declined because he had been Provost at Penn for only two years and did not feel it was an appropriate time to leave his post. But Gregorian was never appointed President of the University of Pennsylvania. While there was no commitment on the part of the university to appoint him president, Gregorian did receive assurances that he would be given the opportunity to withdraw his candidacy if the position was not going to be offered to him so that he would not be a liability to whoever was appointed president of the university. "The story generally accepted," writes one Stanford alumnus in a 2005 interview with Gregorian, "is that some Philadelphia mandarins on Penn's board couldn’t tolerate a foreign name and accent—someone they saw as insufficiently polished and pedigreed—as president of their Ivy League institution." In 1981, Gregorian resigned as Provost, and Sheldon Hackney
was named President of the University of Pennsylvania that year.
had suffered budget cuts in the 1970s and, facing a vacancy in its presidency, needed a candidate who could raise money and revitalize the library. After some period of unsuccessful search, Gregorian was approached; of Gregorian, then library board chairman Andrew Heiskell said: “out of nowhere, a new candidate appeared. Instinctively I knew he was it.”
Gregorian arrived in 1981, facing deficits and a deteriorating architecture. Eight years later, the operation budget had doubled, four hundred new employees were hired, the buildings were cleaned and restored, and $327 million had been raised, including some $70 million in gifts-in-kind from individual collectors and benefactors. Local philanthropists and city leaders also agreed that Gregorian restored the NYPL into a cultural landmark. He left the library in 1989, “eager to return to the academic world.”
Democracy in America
. Gregorian also led a capital campaign that raised well over $500 million. By the end of his presidency, Brown's endowment had passed the $1 billion mark.
President Gregorian's tenure was marked by increased international prominence for Brown and a significant rise in demand for admission. Equally, the student body grew more diverse than ever. Gregorian informed the Brown community of his resignation on January 7, 1997, and he left Brown in September of that year to assume leadership of Carnegie Corporation of New York. He made and kept a promise to attend the commencement ceremony and shake hands with all undergraduate students who had matriculated during his presidency.
awarded Dr. Gregorian the National Humanities Medal
. President George W. Bush
later awarded Dr. Gregorian the Presidential Medal of Freedom
. On June 17, 2009, The White House announced that President Barack Obama
had appointed Gregorian to the President's Commission on White House Fellowships.
Gregorian has also been decorated by the French, Italian, Austrian and Portuguese governments.
Vartan Gregorian is also the recipient of the Ellis Island Medal of Honor
and the American Academy and the Institute of Arts and Letters' Gold Medal for Service to the Arts. In 2010, he received the Aspen Institute’s Henry Crown Leadership Award.
He has been honored by various cultural and professional associations, including the Urban League, the League of Women Voters
, the Players Club, PEN-American Center, Literacy Volunteers of New York, the American Institute of Architects
and the Charles A. Dana Foundation. He has been honored by the states of New York, Massachusetts
, Texas, Pennsylvania
, and Rhode Island
, and the cities of Fresno
, Austin
, New York, Providence
and San Francisco.
He is a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences
and the American Philosophical Society
. In 1969, he received the Danforth Foundation
's E.H. Harbison Distinguished Teaching Award.
Armenian-American
Armenian Americans are citizens of the United States whose ancestry originates wholly or partly in Armenia. During the United States 2000 Census, 385,488 respondents indicated either full or partial Armenian ancestry...
academic, serving as the president of Carnegie Corporation of New York
Carnegie Corporation of New York
Carnegie Corporation of New York, which was established by Andrew Carnegie in 1911 "to promote the advancement and diffusion of knowledge and understanding," is one of the oldest, largest and most influential of American foundations...
. He is an ethnic Armenian
Armenians
Armenian people or Armenians are a nation and ethnic group native to the Armenian Highland.The largest concentration is in Armenia having a nearly-homogeneous population with 97.9% or 3,145,354 being ethnic Armenian....
, born in Iran
Iran
Iran , officially the Islamic Republic of Iran , is a country in Southern and Western Asia. The name "Iran" has been in use natively since the Sassanian era and came into use internationally in 1935, before which the country was known to the Western world as Persia...
.
He came to the United States in 1956 as a freshman, attending Stanford University, where he completed his B.A., with honors, in two years. After receiving his dual PhD in history and humanities
Humanities
The humanities are academic disciplines that study the human condition, using methods that are primarily analytical, critical, or speculative, as distinguished from the mainly empirical approaches of the natural sciences....
from Stanford University
Stanford University
The Leland Stanford Junior University, commonly referred to as Stanford University or Stanford, is a private research university on an campus located near Palo Alto, California. It is situated in the northwestern Santa Clara Valley on the San Francisco Peninsula, approximately northwest of San...
in 1964, Gregorian served on the faculties at several American universities before joining the faculty of the University of Pennsylvania
University of Pennsylvania
The University of Pennsylvania is a private, Ivy League university located in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States. Penn is the fourth-oldest institution of higher education in the United States,Penn is the fourth-oldest using the founding dates claimed by each institution...
in 1972 as Tarzian Professor of Armenian and Caucasian History and Professor of South Asian history. In 1974, he was appointed UPenn's founding dean of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences and became Provost in 1978. From 1981 to 1989, Gregorian served as president of the New York Public Library
New York Public Library
The New York Public Library is the largest public library in North America and is one of the United States' most significant research libraries...
, an eight-year tenure which would prove one of his most lasting legacies.
In 1988, he was chosen to become president
Academic administration
An academic administration is a branch of university or college employees responsible for the maintenance and supervision of the institution and separate from the faculty or academics, although some personnel may have joint responsibilities...
of Brown University
Brown University
Brown University is a private, Ivy League university located in Providence, Rhode Island, United States. Founded in 1764 prior to American independence from the British Empire as the College in the English Colony of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations early in the reign of King George III ,...
, where he served for the next nine years. In 1997, he was selected as president of philanthropic
Philanthropy
Philanthropy etymologically means "the love of humanity"—love in the sense of caring for, nourishing, developing, or enhancing; humanity in the sense of "what it is to be human," or "human potential." In modern practical terms, it is "private initiatives for public good, focusing on quality of...
Carnegie Corporation of New York
Carnegie Corporation of New York
Carnegie Corporation of New York, which was established by Andrew Carnegie in 1911 "to promote the advancement and diffusion of knowledge and understanding," is one of the oldest, largest and most influential of American foundations...
. He is also a trustee of the Museum of Modern Art
Museum of Modern Art
The Museum of Modern Art is an art museum in Midtown Manhattan in New York City, on 53rd Street, between Fifth and Sixth Avenues. It has been important in developing and collecting modernist art, and is often identified as the most influential museum of modern art in the world...
, the American Academy in Berlin, the Institute for Advanced Study, and Brandeis University, among other institutions.
He has received the National Humanities Medal
National Humanities Medal
The National Humanities Medal honors individuals or groups whose work has deepened the nation’s understanding of the humanities, broadened citizens’ engagement with the humanities, or helped preserve and expand Americans’ access to important resources in the humanities.The award, given by the...
. In 2004, he received the Presidential Medal of Freedom
Presidential Medal of Freedom
The Presidential Medal of Freedom is an award bestowed by the President of the United States and is—along with thecomparable Congressional Gold Medal bestowed by an act of U.S. Congress—the highest civilian award in the United States...
, the highest civilian award in the United States. Gregorian is on the advisory board of USC Center on Public Diplomacy
USC Center on Public Diplomacy
The University of Southern California Center on Public Diplomacy is a joint academic research, teaching and training center created and run jointly by the USC Annenberg School for Communication and the USC College of Letters, Arts and Sciences' School of International Relations.Center leadership is...
, the Brookings Doha Center
Brookings Doha Center
Brookings Doha Center is a project of the Saban Center for Middle East Policy within the Brookings Institution, started in 2007. In its own words, it conducts "research on the socio-economic and geopolitical issues facing Muslim-majority states and communities, and encourages increased dialogue...
and is a member of the editorial board of the Encyclopædia Britannica
Encyclopædia Britannica
The Encyclopædia Britannica , published by Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc., is a general knowledge English-language encyclopaedia that is available in print, as a DVD, and on the Internet. It is written and continuously updated by about 100 full-time editors and more than 4,000 expert...
. President Barack Obama appointed him to serve on the President's Commission on White House Fellowships.
A Phi Beta Kappa and a Ford Foundation
Ford Foundation
The Ford Foundation is a private foundation incorporated in Michigan and based in New York City created to fund programs that were chartered in 1936 by Edsel Ford and Henry Ford....
Foreign Area Training Fellow, he is a recipient of numerous fellowships, including those from the John Simon Guggenheim Foundation, the American Council of Learned Societies, the Social Science Research Council
Social Science Research Council
The Social Science Research Council is a U.S.-based independent nonprofit organization dedicated to advancing research in the social sciences and related disciplines...
and the American Philosophical Society
American Philosophical Society
The American Philosophical Society, founded in 1743, and located in Philadelphia, Pa., is an eminent scholarly organization of international reputation, that promotes useful knowledge in the sciences and humanities through excellence in scholarly research, professional meetings, publications,...
. He is also a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts of Sciences.
He has also received honorary degrees from nearly seventy institutions. He documented much of his private life in his 2003 autobiography The Road to Home: My Life and Times.
Early life
Gregorian was born in TabrizTabriz
Tabriz is the fourth largest city and one of the historical capitals of Iran and the capital of East Azerbaijan Province. Situated at an altitude of 1,350 meters at the junction of the Quri River and Aji River, it was the second largest city in Iran until the late 1960s, one of its former...
, Iran, to Samuel B. Gregorian and Shushanik G. Mirzaian. His family belonged to the minority Armenian
Armenians
Armenian people or Armenians are a nation and ethnic group native to the Armenian Highland.The largest concentration is in Armenia having a nearly-homogeneous population with 97.9% or 3,145,354 being ethnic Armenian....
Christian population. When Vartan Gregorian was six years old his mother, then twenty-six, died of pneumonia. His father, who worked for the Anglo-Iranian Oil Company in Abadan, was away from home much of the time, and hence Gregorian and his younger sister Ojik were raised by Voski Mirzaian, his maternal grandmother.
Elementary and secondary education
Gregorian attended elementary school in Iran. In his autobiography, in discussing the events that led to his secondary education, Gregorian refers to several "strangers" who allowed this transition in his life to take place (and eventually move him to the United States). First, in 1948, Edgar Maloyan, the GaullistGaullism
Gaullism is a French political ideology based on the thought and action of Resistance leader then president Charles de Gaulle.-Foreign policy:...
French vice-consul
Consul (representative)
The political title Consul is used for the official representatives of the government of one state in the territory of another, normally acting to assist and protect the citizens of the consul's own country, and to facilitate trade and friendship between the peoples of the two countries...
in Tabriz at the time, suggested to Gregorian that he ought to go to Beirut, Lebanon
Beirut
Beirut is the capital and largest city of Lebanon, with a population ranging from 1 million to more than 2 million . Located on a peninsula at the midpoint of Lebanon's Mediterranean coastline, it serves as the country's largest and main seaport, and also forms the Beirut Metropolitan...
to continue his education and provided him with three letters of introduction: one to the head of the Lebanese Internal Security Agency, one to the Collège Arménien, and one to a hotel where he could stay. Gregorian also did chores for another individual in Tabriz, an optometrist named Hrary Stepanian, who eventually helped Gregorian obtain his passport to get to Lebanon:
The head of the Armenian Relief Society
Armenian Relief Society
The Armenian Relief Society, A.R.S or H.O.M , is an independent, non-governmental and non-sectarian organization and NGO, serving the social and educational needs of Armenian communities everywhere, seeking to preserve the cultural identity of the Armenian nation, and, whenever and wherever the...
of Lebanon arranged to provide Gregorian with meals for a monthly cost of US$6.15 as well as lodging. He learned French and completed his secondary education at the Collège Arménien in Beirut. Simon Vratzian, former prime minister of the pre-Soviet
Soviet Union
The Soviet Union , officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics , was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia between 1922 and 1991....
Democratic Republic of Armenia
Democratic Republic of Armenia
The Democratic Republic of Armenia was the first modern establishment of an Armenian state...
and then director of the college, provided Gregorian with the advice and assistance that helped him make arrangements to attend a university in the United States. In 1956, Gregorian applied to only two universities—the University of California, Berkeley
University of California, Berkeley
The University of California, Berkeley , is a teaching and research university established in 1868 and located in Berkeley, California, USA...
, and Stanford University
Stanford University
The Leland Stanford Junior University, commonly referred to as Stanford University or Stanford, is a private research university on an campus located near Palo Alto, California. It is situated in the northwestern Santa Clara Valley on the San Francisco Peninsula, approximately northwest of San...
—and was admitted by each. Stanford's acceptance arrived by airmail
Airmail
Airmail is mail that is transported by aircraft. It typically arrives more quickly than surface mail, and usually costs more to send...
months before Berkeley's did by surface mail, at which point Gregorian had already enrolled at Stanford.
Stanford
Gregorian was twenty-two when he began his undergraduate education at Stanford in 1956. He developed an affinity for European historyHistory of Europe
History of Europe describes the history of humans inhabiting the European continent since it was first populated in prehistoric times to present, with the first human settlement between 45,000 and 25,000 BC.-Overview:...
due to his relationship with his freshman mentor Wayne S. Vucinich, a historian of Eastern Europe and the Ottoman Empire
Ottoman Empire
The Ottoman EmpireIt was usually referred to as the "Ottoman Empire", the "Turkish Empire", the "Ottoman Caliphate" or more commonly "Turkey" by its contemporaries...
. He completed his B.A. in history and humanities
Humanities
The humanities are academic disciplines that study the human condition, using methods that are primarily analytical, critical, or speculative, as distinguished from the mainly empirical approaches of the natural sciences....
with honors in 1958; the topic of his thesis was "Toynbee
Arnold J. Toynbee
Arnold Joseph Toynbee CH was a British historian whose twelve-volume analysis of the rise and fall of civilizations, A Study of History, 1934–1961, was a synthesis of world history, a metahistory based on universal rhythms of rise, flowering and decline, which examined history from a global...
and Islam."
While a student at Stanford, he again received provisions from Armenians
Armenians
Armenian people or Armenians are a nation and ethnic group native to the Armenian Highland.The largest concentration is in Armenia having a nearly-homogeneous population with 97.9% or 3,145,354 being ethnic Armenian....
who were strangers to him. He explains how this consistent benevolence reaffirmed his faith in the Armenian community in the diaspora
Armenian diaspora
The Armenian diaspora refers to the Armenian communities outside the Republic of Armenia and self proclaimed de facto independent Nagorno-Karabakh Republic...
and diaspora communities in general:
He would go on to receive his PhD in history and humanities
Humanities
The humanities are academic disciplines that study the human condition, using methods that are primarily analytical, critical, or speculative, as distinguished from the mainly empirical approaches of the natural sciences....
from Stanford in 1964, writing a dissertation entitled "Traditionalism and Modernism in Islam." The topic of his dissertation was related to an ongoing research project which he began in 1961, after receiving a Ford Foundation
Ford Foundation
The Ford Foundation is a private foundation incorporated in Michigan and based in New York City created to fund programs that were chartered in 1936 by Edsel Ford and Henry Ford....
fellowship which took him to England, France, Lebanon, Pakistan, Afghanistan and India. These experiences and his related research formed the basis for his first book, The Emergence of Modern Afghanistan: Politics of Reform and Modernization, 1840–1946 (1969, Stanford University Press
Stanford University Press
The Stanford University Press is the publishing house of Stanford University. In 1892, an independent publishing company was established at the university. The first use of the name "Stanford University Press" in a book's imprinting occurred in 1895...
).
Professorships
Prior to receiving his PhD, Gregorian had already begun teaching European and Middle Eastern history at San Francisco State CollegeSan Francisco State University
San Francisco State University is a public university located in San Francisco, California. As part of the 23-campus California State University system, the university offers over 100 areas of study from nine academic colleges...
(now San Francisco State University) upon returning to California from Afghanistan in 1962. He left San Francisco State in 1968 and for a brief stint served as Associate Professor at UCLA
University of California, Los Angeles
The University of California, Los Angeles is a public research university located in the Westwood neighborhood of Los Angeles, California, USA. It was founded in 1919 as the "Southern Branch" of the University of California and is the second oldest of the ten campuses...
. That same year he joined the faculty of the University of Texas at Austin
University of Texas at Austin
The University of Texas at Austin is a state research university located in Austin, Texas, USA, and is the flagship institution of the The University of Texas System. Founded in 1883, its campus is located approximately from the Texas State Capitol in Austin...
, where he remained until 1972. He received the title of Professor at UT Austin, and also served as the Director of Special Programs there from 1970–1972.
Gregorian had been recruited to UT Austin by John Silber
John Silber
John Robert Silber is an American academician and former candidate for public office. From 1971 to 1996 he was President of Boston University and from 1996 to 2003 Chancellor of the University. Since 2003 he has been its President Emeritus. In 1990, Silber took a leave of absence from the...
, then Dean of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences who was eventually fired at the urging of the Chairman of the Board of Trustees of the university, Frank Erwin, over a disagreement about whether to increase the university's student population and expand the university. Gregorian himself resigned in protest of the issue, but did not follow Silber and a number of other faculty members in their exodus to Boston University
Boston University
Boston University is a private research university located in Boston, Massachusetts. With more than 4,000 faculty members and more than 31,000 students, Boston University is one of the largest private universities in the United States and one of Boston's largest employers...
. Rather, in 1972, Gregorian accepted the position of Tarzian
Sarkes Tarzian
Sarkes Tarzian was an Armenian-born US engineer, inventor, and broadcaster. In 1907, he and his family immigrated to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, in the United States. He attended the University of Pennsylvania and received an undergraduate degree in 1924 and a graduate degree in 1927...
Professor of Armenian and Caucasian History and Professor of South Asian history at the University of Pennsylvania
University of Pennsylvania
The University of Pennsylvania is a private, Ivy League university located in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States. Penn is the fourth-oldest institution of higher education in the United States,Penn is the fourth-oldest using the founding dates claimed by each institution...
, an endowed professorship which allowed him to teach Armenian, South Asian, and European intellectual history.
In 1974, Gregorian was named Dean of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences at the University of Pennsylvania, the first person to hold this position. The Faculty of Arts and Sciences brought together 28 departments, 33 graduate groups, eight special programs and offices, 528 faculty members, some 5,500 undergraduates and 2,500 graduate students, making it the largest single component of the university, In 1978, Gregorian became Provost, chief academic officer of the university.
In 1980, then-president of the University of Pennsylvania Martin Meyerson
Martin Meyerson
Martin Meyerson was a United States city planner and academic leader best known as the President of the University of Pennsylvania between 1970 and 1981....
announced his retirement, and there was speculation that Gregorian would succeed him. In fact, Gregorian had been offered the chancellorship at UC Berkeley
University of California, Berkeley
The University of California, Berkeley , is a teaching and research university established in 1868 and located in Berkeley, California, USA...
, but had declined because he had been Provost at Penn for only two years and did not feel it was an appropriate time to leave his post. But Gregorian was never appointed President of the University of Pennsylvania. While there was no commitment on the part of the university to appoint him president, Gregorian did receive assurances that he would be given the opportunity to withdraw his candidacy if the position was not going to be offered to him so that he would not be a liability to whoever was appointed president of the university. "The story generally accepted," writes one Stanford alumnus in a 2005 interview with Gregorian, "is that some Philadelphia mandarins on Penn's board couldn’t tolerate a foreign name and accent—someone they saw as insufficiently polished and pedigreed—as president of their Ivy League institution." In 1981, Gregorian resigned as Provost, and Sheldon Hackney
Sheldon Hackney
Francis Sheldon Hackney is a prominent U.S. educator. He is the Boies Professor of United States History at the University of Pennsylvania. Hackney earned his Ph.D. in American History at Yale University, where he worked with eminent Southern historian C. Vann Woodward. He began his career as a...
was named President of the University of Pennsylvania that year.
New York Public Library
Following his stay at Penn, Gregorian found work outside the university walls. The New York Public LibraryNew York Public Library
The New York Public Library is the largest public library in North America and is one of the United States' most significant research libraries...
had suffered budget cuts in the 1970s and, facing a vacancy in its presidency, needed a candidate who could raise money and revitalize the library. After some period of unsuccessful search, Gregorian was approached; of Gregorian, then library board chairman Andrew Heiskell said: “out of nowhere, a new candidate appeared. Instinctively I knew he was it.”
Gregorian arrived in 1981, facing deficits and a deteriorating architecture. Eight years later, the operation budget had doubled, four hundred new employees were hired, the buildings were cleaned and restored, and $327 million had been raised, including some $70 million in gifts-in-kind from individual collectors and benefactors. Local philanthropists and city leaders also agreed that Gregorian restored the NYPL into a cultural landmark. He left the library in 1989, “eager to return to the academic world.”
Brown University
Vartan Gregorian was formally inaugurated as president of Brown in 1989. During his tenure, he instituted the President's Lecture Series, which brought prominent scholars, leaders, and authors to campus. He presided over the building of a residence quadrangle that now bears his name, and taught classes. He often spoke admiringly to the Brown community of Alexis de Tocqueville'sAlexis de Tocqueville
Alexis-Charles-Henri Clérel de Tocqueville was a French political thinker and historian best known for his Democracy in America and The Old Regime and the Revolution . In both of these works, he explored the effects of the rising equality of social conditions on the individual and the state in...
Democracy in America
Democracy in America
De la démocratie en Amérique is a classic French text by Alexis de Tocqueville. A "literal" translation of its title is Of Democracy in America, but the usual translation of the title is simply Democracy in America...
. Gregorian also led a capital campaign that raised well over $500 million. By the end of his presidency, Brown's endowment had passed the $1 billion mark.
President Gregorian's tenure was marked by increased international prominence for Brown and a significant rise in demand for admission. Equally, the student body grew more diverse than ever. Gregorian informed the Brown community of his resignation on January 7, 1997, and he left Brown in September of that year to assume leadership of Carnegie Corporation of New York. He made and kept a promise to attend the commencement ceremony and shake hands with all undergraduate students who had matriculated during his presidency.
Awards and honors
President George H.W. Bush appointed Vartan Gregorian to the Fulbright Commission. President Bill ClintonBill Clinton
William Jefferson "Bill" Clinton is an American politician who served as the 42nd President of the United States from 1993 to 2001. Inaugurated at age 46, he was the third-youngest president. He took office at the end of the Cold War, and was the first president of the baby boomer generation...
awarded Dr. Gregorian the National Humanities Medal
National Humanities Medal
The National Humanities Medal honors individuals or groups whose work has deepened the nation’s understanding of the humanities, broadened citizens’ engagement with the humanities, or helped preserve and expand Americans’ access to important resources in the humanities.The award, given by the...
. President George W. Bush
George W. Bush
George Walker Bush is an American politician who served as the 43rd President of the United States, from 2001 to 2009. Before that, he was the 46th Governor of Texas, having served from 1995 to 2000....
later awarded Dr. Gregorian the Presidential Medal of Freedom
Presidential Medal of Freedom
The Presidential Medal of Freedom is an award bestowed by the President of the United States and is—along with thecomparable Congressional Gold Medal bestowed by an act of U.S. Congress—the highest civilian award in the United States...
. On June 17, 2009, The White House announced that President Barack Obama
Barack Obama
Barack Hussein Obama II is the 44th and current President of the United States. He is the first African American to hold the office. Obama previously served as a United States Senator from Illinois, from January 2005 until he resigned following his victory in the 2008 presidential election.Born in...
had appointed Gregorian to the President's Commission on White House Fellowships.
Gregorian has also been decorated by the French, Italian, Austrian and Portuguese governments.
Vartan Gregorian is also the recipient of the Ellis Island Medal of Honor
Ellis Island Medal of Honor
The Ellis Island Medal of Honor was founded by the National Ethnic Coalition of Organizations and intended to pay homage to the immigrant experience. The medals honor the contribution made to America by immigrants and the legacy they left behind in the successes of their children and grand-children...
and the American Academy and the Institute of Arts and Letters' Gold Medal for Service to the Arts. In 2010, he received the Aspen Institute’s Henry Crown Leadership Award.
He has been honored by various cultural and professional associations, including the Urban League, the League of Women Voters
League of Women Voters
The League of Women Voters is an American political organization founded in 1920 by Carrie Chapman Catt during the last meeting of the National American Woman Suffrage Association approximately six months before the Nineteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution gave women the right to vote...
, the Players Club, PEN-American Center, Literacy Volunteers of New York, the American Institute of Architects
American Institute of Architects
The American Institute of Architects is a professional organization for architects in the United States. Headquartered in Washington, D.C., the AIA offers education, government advocacy, community redevelopment, and public outreach to support the architecture profession and improve its public image...
and the Charles A. Dana Foundation. He has been honored by the states of New York, Massachusetts
Massachusetts
The Commonwealth of Massachusetts is a state in the New England region of the northeastern United States of America. It is bordered by Rhode Island and Connecticut to the south, New York to the west, and Vermont and New Hampshire to the north; at its east lies the Atlantic Ocean. As of the 2010...
, Texas, Pennsylvania
Pennsylvania
The Commonwealth of Pennsylvania is a U.S. state that is located in the Northeastern and Mid-Atlantic regions of the United States. The state borders Delaware and Maryland to the south, West Virginia to the southwest, Ohio to the west, New York and Ontario, Canada, to the north, and New Jersey to...
, and Rhode Island
Rhode Island
The state of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations, more commonly referred to as Rhode Island , is a state in the New England region of the United States. It is the smallest U.S. state by area...
, and the cities of Fresno
Fresno
Fresno is the fifth largest city in California.Fresno may also refer to:-Places:Colombia* Fresno, TolimaSpain* Fresno, a ghost village in Nidáliga, Valle de Sedano, Burgos* Aldea del Fresno, Madrid* Fresno de la Vega, Ribera del Esla, León...
, Austin
Austin
Austin is the capital of the U.S. state of Texas.Austin may also refer to:-In the United States:*Austin, Arkansas*Austin, Colorado*Austin, Chicago, Illinois*Austin, Indiana*Austin, Minnesota*Austin, Nevada*Austin, Oregon...
, New York, Providence
Providence, Rhode Island
Providence is the capital and most populous city of Rhode Island and was one of the first cities established in the United States. Located in Providence County, it is the third largest city in the New England region...
and San Francisco.
He is a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences
American Academy of Arts and Sciences
The American Academy of Arts and Sciences is an independent policy research center that conducts multidisciplinary studies of complex and emerging problems. The Academy’s elected members are leaders in the academic disciplines, the arts, business, and public affairs.James Bowdoin, John Adams, and...
and the American Philosophical Society
American Philosophical Society
The American Philosophical Society, founded in 1743, and located in Philadelphia, Pa., is an eminent scholarly organization of international reputation, that promotes useful knowledge in the sciences and humanities through excellence in scholarly research, professional meetings, publications,...
. In 1969, he received the Danforth Foundation
Danforth Foundation
Danforth Foundation is one of the largest private non-for profit foundations in the St. Louis Metropolitan region. The foundation has 1.5 billion USD in assets as of 2003. Established in 1927 by Ralston Purina founder William H. Danforth and his wife, the Danforth Foundation grants funds...
's E.H. Harbison Distinguished Teaching Award.
Honoris Causa degrees
Vartan Gregorian has received nearly 70 honorary degrees. Below is a partial list.- Carnegie Mellon UniversityCarnegie Mellon UniversityCarnegie Mellon University is a private research university in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, United States....
- Benjamin Franklin Institute of Technology
- Brown UniversityBrown UniversityBrown University is a private, Ivy League university located in Providence, Rhode Island, United States. Founded in 1764 prior to American independence from the British Empire as the College in the English Colony of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations early in the reign of King George III ,...
- City University of New YorkCity University of New YorkThe City University of New York is the public university system of New York City, with its administrative offices in Yorkville in Manhattan. It is the largest urban university in the United States, consisting of 23 institutions: 11 senior colleges, six community colleges, the William E...
- Dartmouth CollegeDartmouth CollegeDartmouth College is a private, Ivy League university in Hanover, New Hampshire, United States. The institution comprises a liberal arts college, Dartmouth Medical School, Thayer School of Engineering, and the Tuck School of Business, as well as 19 graduate programs in the arts and sciences...
- Drew UniversityDrew UniversityDrew University is a private university located in Madison, New Jersey.Originally established as the Drew Theological Seminary in 1867, the university later expanded to include an undergraduate liberal arts college in 1928 and commenced a program of graduate studies in 1955...
- Fordham UniversityFordham UniversityFordham University is a private, nonprofit, coeducational research university in the United States, with three campuses in and around New York City. It was founded by the Roman Catholic Diocese of New York in 1841 as St...
- The Jewish Theological Seminary of AmericaJewish Theological Seminary of AmericaThe Jewish Theological Seminary of America is one of the academic and spiritual centers of Conservative Judaism, and a major center for academic scholarship in Jewish studies.JTS operates five schools: Albert A...
- Johns Hopkins UniversityJohns Hopkins UniversityThe Johns Hopkins University, commonly referred to as Johns Hopkins, JHU, or simply Hopkins, is a private research university based in Baltimore, Maryland, United States...
- The Juilliard School
- Keio UniversityKeio University,abbreviated as Keio or Keidai , is a Japanese university located in Minato, Tokyo. It is known as the oldest institute of higher education in Japan. Founder Fukuzawa Yukichi originally established it as a school for Western studies in 1858 in Edo . It has eleven campuses in Tokyo and Kanagawa...
- New York UniversityNew York UniversityNew York University is a private, nonsectarian research university based in New York City. NYU's main campus is situated in the Greenwich Village section of Manhattan...
- Rutgers UniversityRutgers UniversityRutgers, The State University of New Jersey , is the largest institution for higher education in New Jersey, United States. It was originally chartered as Queen's College in 1766. It is the eighth-oldest college in the United States and one of the nine Colonial colleges founded before the American...
- San Francisco State UniversitySan Francisco State UniversitySan Francisco State University is a public university located in San Francisco, California. As part of the 23-campus California State University system, the university offers over 100 areas of study from nine academic colleges...
- Tufts UniversityTufts UniversityTufts University is a private research university located in Medford/Somerville, near Boston, Massachusetts. It is organized into ten schools, including two undergraduate programs and eight graduate divisions, on four campuses in Massachusetts and on the eastern border of France...
- University of AberdeenUniversity of AberdeenThe University of Aberdeen, an ancient university founded in 1495, in Aberdeen, Scotland, is a British university. It is the third oldest university in Scotland, and the fifth oldest in the United Kingdom and wider English-speaking world...
- University of Illinois at Urbana-ChampaignUniversity of Illinois at Urbana-ChampaignThe University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign is a large public research-intensive university in the state of Illinois, United States. It is the flagship campus of the University of Illinois system...
- University of MiamiUniversity of MiamiThe University of Miami is a private, non-sectarian university founded in 1925 with its main campus in Coral Gables, Florida, a medical campus in Miami city proper at Civic Center, and an oceanographic research facility on Virginia Key., the university currently enrolls 15,629 students in 12...
- University of Notre DameUniversity of Notre DameThe University of Notre Dame du Lac is a Catholic research university located in Notre Dame, an unincorporated community north of the city of South Bend, in St. Joseph County, Indiana, United States...
- University of PennsylvaniaUniversity of PennsylvaniaThe University of Pennsylvania is a private, Ivy League university located in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States. Penn is the fourth-oldest institution of higher education in the United States,Penn is the fourth-oldest using the founding dates claimed by each institution...
- University of St. Andrews
- University of EdinburghUniversity of EdinburghThe University of Edinburgh, founded in 1583, is a public research university located in Edinburgh, the capital of Scotland, and a UNESCO World Heritage Site. The university is deeply embedded in the fabric of the city, with many of the buildings in the historic Old Town belonging to the university...