Vartan Gregorian (April 8, 1934 – April 15, 2021) was an Iranian-American of Armenian descent. He was an academic, educator, and historian, and he served as president of the Carnegie Corporation from 1997 to 2021.
Gregorian moved to the United States from Iran at age 22. He graduated with a PhD from Stanford University. He subsequently taught at several universities and his work as a historian focused mainly on the Muslim world. He went on to join the University of Pennsylvania faculty, then as its provost. From 1981 to 1989 he served as president of the New York Public Library during which he succeeded in financially stabilizing the institution and revitalizing its cultural importance. From 1989 to 1997 he served as the first foreign-born president of Brown University. Gregorian's work has been widely acknowledged. He received dozens of honorary doctorates, the National Humanities Medal (1998), and the Presidential Medal of Freedom (2004).
Early life and education Vartan Gregorian was born on April 8, 1934, in the city of Tabriz in northern Iran to Christian Armenian parents Samuel B. Gregorian and Shushanik (née Mirzaian). Both his parents had a high school education. His father worked for the Anglo-Iranian Oil Company in Abadan and was mostly absent. His mother died of pneumonia at 26, when he was six and his father later remarried. Vartan and his younger sister, Ojik, were raised by his maternal grandmother, Voski Mirzaian. She came from a family of scribes, but was an illiterate peasant and Gregorian described her as wise. His grandfather owned an inn for camel caravans. Regarding his family origins, he said that he could not determine if they were indigenous to the area, or settled there in the 15th, 16th, or 19th century, because "they were mostly from peasant villages that migrated to Tabriz."
He first went to an Armenian elementary school in Tabriz, then a Russian one when northern Iran was under Soviet occupation. When Iran regained control of the area, he learned Persian. He was told by Edgar Maloyan, the French vice-council in Tabriz of Armenian origin, that he had to go to Beirut, Lebanon because he was "too smart to stay in Tabriz". He followed his advice and continued his studies at the Collège Armenien (Jemaran) in Beirut, graduating in 1955. Before moving to Beirut, he spoke Armenian, some Russian, Persian, and Turkish. He learned French within a year. Among his teachers was Simon Vratsian, the last prime minister of the First Republic of Armenia (1918–20). He was one of Vratsian's unofficial secretaries. Gregorian described him as both his mentor and his benevolent benefactor. He also briefly worked as a reporter in Beirut before emigrating to the United States in 1956. Gregorian came to the United States with the initial intention to return to Beirut to teach Armenian history in a high school. In another interview, Gregorian said he studied Portuguese so he could become the principal/director of an Armenian high school in São Paulo, Brazil. In 1956, he enrolled at Stanford University and completed his BA in history and humanities in two years, graduating with honors in 1958.
Teaching career Gregorian earned a dual PhD in history and humanities (art history, philosophy, Romance languages, religion, classics) from Stanford University in 1964. His dissertation was titled "Traditionalism and Modernism in Islam". He began his teaching career at University of California, Berkeley where he was briefly instructor in Armenian history and culture in 1960. He taught European and Middle Eastern history at San Francisco State College between 1962 and 1968. He was initially instructor, then in 1964 he was named assistant professor and, in 1966, associate professor of history. In 1965–66 he had a one-year fellowship in Soviet Armenia. He was a visiting associate professor of history at University of California, Los Angeles in 1968, before moving to University of Texas at Austin as associate professor in 1968–1970 and professor of history in 1970–1972.
Gregorian joined the University of Pennsylvania faculty in 1972 as Tarzian Professor of Armenian and Caucasian History and Professor of South Asian history. In 1974 he became the founding dean of Penn's Faculty of Arts and Sciences and served on that role until 1978. He subsequently served as the 23rd provost of Penn from January 1979 to October 1980. In 1980 Gregorian was widely considered to be the most probable candidate for president of the University of Pennsylvania as he had the "resounding support of most of the deans, the Faculty Senate, and the Undergraduate Assembly." Gregorian was seen as a charismatic leader and one with "flamboyant style and ever-present brilliance". However, the university trustees chose Sheldon Hackney instead.
From 1984 to 1989 Gregorian was professor of history and Near Eastern studies at New York University and at The New School for Social Research.
New York Public Library
From 1981 to 1989 Gregorian served as president of the New York Public Library (NYPL), a network that then contained four research libraries and 83 circulating libraries. He was highly successful in the position, particularly as a fundraiser. Gregorian nearly doubled the library's budget and by the end of his tenure, he had secured $327 to $400 million for the NYPL from individuals, foundations, and corporations. He was credited with restoring the "crumbling landmark to a vibrant cultural nexus" and rescuing one of America's "known public institutions from financial and cultural crisis and thereby restor[ing] the stature of public libraries nationwide." According to Michael Gorman, Gregorian was one of the few "shining exceptions" of academics running libraries well. He noted that as the head of the NYPL Gregorian "can fairly be said to have rescued that venerable and valuable institution from pauperism."
During Gregorian tenure, the library's Main Branch in Manhattan was restored with $42 million. He also succeeded in getting approval from city planning authorities to restore the nearby Bryant Park. Upon his departure, The New York Times wrote that as president of the NYPL, Gregorian "revived an empire of learning that is more than ever a national treasure." Barlow Der Mugrdechian noted that Gregorian "transformed what was then a decaying and underfinanced institution into a center of New York cultural life." His tenure at the NYPL made Gregorian a reputable institutional leader. In May 1999 a hall of the library's Main Branch was named after Gregorian.
Upon his death, NYPL recognized that "his leadership and tenacity revitalized and reaffirmed the Library as the preeminent civic and educational institution that New Yorkers know and love today. Through his efforts and leadership, the Library was able to weather, recover, and rebound from a decade of fiscal crisis, restoring hours of service in the branches, renovating many historic locations, growing and strengthening circulating collections with a focus on multilingual and multicultural materials, increasing education and literacy programs, and investing in curators and expert staff in the research libraries, among other things."
In 2023, the trustees of The New York Public Library voted to rename the Center for Research in the Humanities to the Vartan Gregorian Center for Research in the Humanities.
Brown University
Brown University awarded Gregorian an honorary doctorate in 1984 for his work at the NYPL.
Four years later, in August 1988 Gregorian was chosen to become Brown's 16th and first foreign-born president. He was officially inaugurated as president in April 1989. When he took over, Brown had the lowest endowment ($370 million) in the Ivy League. He served in that position for eight years, until June 1997. In his eight-year tenure, Gregorian raised around $535 million, raising the total to $850 million. He is also credited with having strengthened Brown's reputation and "enhancing its traditional emphasis on undergraduate education." During his presidency, the university "hired 270 new faculty members, expanded the library, and established eleven new departments." The university also underwent increasing internationalization.
At Brown, Gregorian continued teaching a freshman seminar and a senior seminar and a course on Alexis de Tocqueville with Stephen Graubard. He was described as being a "wildly popular figure on campus."
Carnegie Corporation In January 1997 Gregorian was chosen as the president of the Carnegie Corporation of New York, at the time the 16th largest foundation in the U.S., known for its advocacy of education and peace. He assumed the position in June 1997 and became the 12th president and the first outsider—not from within the foundation—to head it. At Carnegie Corporation, Gregorian switched from his previous fundraiser role to one of a fund granter. He commented on it: "People think that giving away money is an easy job. Actually, it's harder than raising money, as you well know, because you have so many excellent projects that compete for funding. The issue is, I tell our staff: Are we going to be an incubator or an oxygen tank?" He advocated "initiatives in teacher education, international peace, and cooperative efforts with other foundations." Commenting on his work at Carnegie Corporation, he said that his main aim was "teaching ideas and values. But most importantly, also, preparation of new citizens. One of our great programs, which I'm very proud of at Carnegie is strengthening US democracy."
Armenian causes
Gregorian was involved in projects in the Armenian American community and Armenia. Barlow Der Mugrdechian described him as a "highly visible model for Armenians." He was a "much-sought-after" keynote speaker at Armenian events, for which he did not take money: "I've never accepted one penny from any Armenian source for the past 30 years."
Gregorian was outspoken about the importance of education in Armenia. He stated in a 2009 interview: "The first thing that Armenia has to invest in, like the Scandinavian countries, is education. Even in the Armenian army, they should teach computer science, mathematics, other sciences." He also called on the Armenian church to invest in education. He was on the Board of Governors of UWC Dilijan, the first international boarding school in Armenia founded in 2014. He donated 1,500 books to the school and a learning center is named after him. Gregorian donated hundreds of books to the American University of Armenia in 2010–14.
In 2016 Gregorian co-founded the Aurora Prize for Awakening Humanity with Ruben Vardanyan and Noubar Afeyan. It honors individuals for humanitarian work on behalf of the survivors of the Armenian genocide. Armenia's Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan called it the "Armenian Nobel Peace Prize."
Gregorian was honored by the Armenian government, the Armenian Church, and Armenian diaspora organizations. In 1999 he received the St. Gregory the Illuminator Medal, the Armenian Church's highest secular award, from Catholicos Karekin I. The National Academy of Sciences of Armenia named him an Honorary Doctor in 2001 and elected him as a Foreign Member in 2008. President of Armenia Serzh Sargsyan awarded him the Mkhitar Gosh Medal in 2013 and the Order of Honor in 2017. He met President of Armenia Armen Sarkissian on several occasions.
In October 2016 Gregorian joined other prominent Armenians in calling the government of Armenia to adopt "new development strategies based on inclusiveness and collective action" and to create "an opportunity for the Armenian world to pivot toward a future of prosperity, to transform the post-Soviet Armenian Republic into a vibrant, modern, secure, peaceful and progressive homeland for a global nation."; text also available at
The National Association for Armenian Studies and Research (NAASR) headquarters in Belmont, Massachusetts, was officially renamed to the NAASR Vartan Gregorian Building in January 2019.
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