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PROVIDENCE
ATHENAEUM HONORS VARTAN AND CLARE GREGORIAN
New
York, NY—May 16, 2003. In recognition of Vartan and Clare
Gregorian’s lifetime of service as educators, and as humanitarian
and philanthropic leaders, the Providence Athenaeum awarded them
the Stephen Hopkins Philanthropic Award at the library’s 250th
anniversary gala on April 27th, 2003. Stephen Hopkins (1707-1785),
a native of Rhode Island, was one of the original signers of the
Declaration of Independence.
Susan
Kertzer, president, Board of Directors of the Providence Athenaeum,
said at the event, “The Providence Athenaeum continues to play
an important role in the cultural development of Providence, Rhode
Island and the United States. We need only think of Stephen Hopkins,
whose memory we honor with our philanthropic award tonight, to be
inspired by the power of books and ideas in shaping the course of
history, both local and national.” The Athenaeum is one of
the oldest libraries in the nation and among the few institutions
founded in pre-Revolutionary America that still exists. It houses
more than 150,000 books, periodicals, DVDs and other materials.
Vartan
Gregorian is the twelfth president of Carnegie Corporation of New
York, a grantmaking institution founded by Andrew Carnegie in 1911.
During his presidency, Gregorian has refocused the organization's
efforts on developing new ideas to further peace and international
security, support higher education and libraries in Africa, strengthen
American democracy and pioneer U.S. educational reforms, with a
focus on redesigning urban high schools and improving teacher education.
Prior to his current position, which he assumed in June 1997, he
served for nine years as the sixteenth president of Brown University.
Before going to Brown, Gregorian served as the president of the
New York Public Library, an institution with a network of four research
libraries and eighty-three circulating libraries.
Born in Tabriz, Iran, of Armenian parents, Gregorian came to the
United States to study at Stanford University, where he earned both
his B.A. and Ph.D. in history and humanities. One result of his
scholarship is his definitive history, The Emergence of Modern
Afghanistan, Politics of Reform and Modernization1880-1946.
He is also author of Islam: A Mosaic, Not a Monolith (The
Brookings Institution, 2003) and The Road to Home: My Life and
Times (Simon and Schuster, 2003).
Clare
Russell Gregorian, a graduate of Stanford University, where the
Gregorians met, has been active in many literacy and community projects
and in public library reform efforts. She was chair of development
and vice president of the board of Planned Parenthood of Rhode Island
for many years and received the organization’s Gilman Angier
Award. While she lived in Rhode Island, she was vice-president of
the Board of the Providence Public Library and inaugurated the successful
effort leading to the establishment of the first Rhode Island National
Public Radio station, of which she is currently honorary board chair.
She is the immediate past president of Literacy Partners, Inc.,
of New York City, and a member of the board of The New York 42nd
Street Theater, Planned Parenthood of New York City and The New
York Public Library’s Branch Library Council. In 1997, she
received an honorary Doctor of Humane Letters from Brown University.
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