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.

[12][1] Gregorian came to the United States with the initial intention to return to Beirut[13] to teach Armenian history in a high school.

[14][10] He began his teaching career at University of California, Berkeley where he was briefly instructor in Armenian history and culture in 1960.

[15][11] In 1980 Gregorian was widely considered to be the most probable candidate for president of the University of Pennsylvania[9] as he had the "resounding support of most of the deans, the Faculty Senate, and the Undergraduate Assembly."

Gregorian nearly doubled the library's budget[1] and by the end of his tenure, he had secured $327[17] to $400[12] million for the NYPL from individuals, foundations, and corporations.

[20] 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.

"[20] Barlow Der Mugrdechian noted that Gregorian "transformed what was then a decaying and underfinanced institution into a center of New York cultural life.

[21] 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.

"[5] 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.

In 1999 he received the St. Gregory the Illuminator Medal, the Armenian Church's highest secular award, from Catholicos Karekin I.

It was said during his lifetime that "He has become increasingly worried about America's deemphasizing studies in the humanities, which has been replaced by the desire to learn marketable skills, and he is concerned by the failure of high schools to prepare students for college so that they often spend the first two years at universities trying to catch up to where they should be.

"[46] He believed that "we can produce an educated, cultured person" in four years who would include "all the possible elements of professionalism, and know-how, and a career, and also a vocation.

[47] In the 1960 Democratic Party presidential primaries he collected signatures for Adlai Stevenson II and then for John F. Kennedy.

[4][48] In a 2003 interview, Gregorian stated that he made "nondiscrimination on the basis of sexual orientation an official policy at both the University of Pennsylvania and at Brown.

"[49] Gregorian was "known for his commitment to human rights and interest in foreign affairs, especially conflict resolution and intellectual freedom.

"[29] In his 1989 speech as president of Brown University, he called for a "value-oriented, moral sense of politics", as Patrick Garry describes it.

[13] In April 2009 Gregorian joined Václav Havel, Prince Hassan bin Talal, Desmond Tutu, and Yōhei Sasakawa in calling on The People's Republic of China to rescind the decision to execute Tibetan activists involved in the 2008 Tibetan unrest and "provide them with an opportunity to be re-tried in a judicial process that is more in keeping with the international standards that China says that it adheres to.

"[51] In May 2009 Gregorian proposed to U.S. President Barack Obama that he send a message to the Iranian authorities, Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, that "mixes Obama's characteristic emphasis on respect and cultural sensitivity with any apology for Mossadegh's overthrow, thanks for Iranian condemnation of 9/11, and a conciliatory tone in asking for the abandonment of nuclear enrichment.

She was an advocate of women's rights, literacy and the arts and was described as a "driving force behind the establishment" of Rhode Island Public Radio.

[8][12][1] As of 2003, Vahe was chief sportswriter at the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, Raffi was working at the State Department, and Dareh was covering the civil courts for the New York Post.

"[63] French Ambassador to the United States Gérard Araud described Gregorian as a "visionary and a living example of the modern man of letters, for whom education and knowledge is the key to opportunity and peace.

[67] New Orleans Mayor LaToya Cantrell noted that Gregorian was "instrumental in helping restore and reopen" the Keller Library after Hurricane Katrina.

[68] Former New York Mayor Mike Bloomberg wrote that Gregorian was a "towering intellect whose passion for public service was matched only by his kindness and compassion for others, and his loving devotion to his family.

[3] The Financial Times wrote in 2007 that Gregorian had received "39 awards, six international decorations, 14 civic honours and 16 prestigious medals.

"[126] Ludwig W. Adamec opined that Gregorian has written a "valuable book; but much remains to be done by him and others before the definitive story of Afghanistan's modernization can be told.

"[127] Firuz Kazemzadeh noted that Gregorian "filled an enormous gap in our knowledge of the Middle East and has done it with exemplary diligence, intelligence, and verve.

[17] Ebrahim Moosa noted that "it is an effort by a prominent American to coax decision-makers to take the complexity of religion seriously and a plea to avoid making flawed geopolitical analyses about Islam.

Michael B. Schub wrote in the Middle East Quarterly that it is "well intentioned and disheartening" and that Gregorian "is by training an Afghan specialist-not a specialist on Islam.

[1] He got the idea of the book when he was in hospital in 1999 and initially wanted to write about the "concept of an educated person, how it has changed from Renaissance to now.