Vartan Gregorian in Armenia in 2019
Credit: Victor Boyko/Getty Images
Vartan Gregorian, who has died aged 87, was an Armenian immigrant to the US, born into poverty in Iran, who became a scholar, university leader and an Olympic-standard fundraiser and philanthropist, on first name terms with everyone who was anyone; one newspaper described him as “one of the few men in the world who could phone Bush or Bono and expect both of them to take his call”.
In a colourful career, Gregorian, a short, stout man of boundless energy and charm, notched up a formidable CV. He served as president of Brown University and president of the Carnegie Corporation of New York (the foundation created by Andrew Carnegie in 1911 to promote education and peace).
Vartan Gregorian, former Brown University president and savior of the New York Public Library, dies at 87
By Robert D. McFadden New York Times,Updated April 16, 2021, 2 hours ago
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In this June 23, 2004, file photo, President Bush presents Vartan Gregorian with the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the nation s highest civil award, during a ceremony in the East Room of the White House in Washington. Gregorian, the noted scholar and philanthropic leader who has led the Carnegie Corporation of New York since 1997, died Thursday, April 15, 2021, after being hospitalized for stomach pain. He was 87.SUSAN WALSH/Associated Press
NEW YORK â Vartan Gregorian, the ebullient Armenian immigrant who climbed to pinnacles of academic and philanthropic achievement but took a detour in the 1980s to restore a fading New York Public Library to its place at the heart of American intellectual life, died Thursday in Manhattan. He was 87.
Vartan Gregorian, Savior of the New York Public Library, Dies at 87
A scholar, a university leader and a believer in libraries, he almost single-handedly rescued a grand but broken one in a time of municipal austerity.
Vartan Gregorian in 2009. A brilliant historian and educator, he led Brown University and the Carnegie Corporation, but his crowning achievement was the revival of the New York Public Library. Credit.John Marshall Mantel for The New York Times
April 16, 2021, 3:33 p.m. ET
Vartan Gregorian, the ebullient Armenian immigrant who climbed to pinnacles of academic and philanthropic achievement but took a detour in the 1980s to restore a fading New York Public Library to its place at the heart of American intellectual life, died on Thursday in Manhattan. He was 87.