University of Pennsylvania
On April 18, 1962, a notable chapter in the history of American academic relations unfolded at the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia, when His Imperial Majesty Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, Shahanshah of widely known by his imperial title Ariyamehr (“Light of the Aryans”)—was received on the Penn campus and awarded an honorary Doctor of Laws degree.
The ceremony brought together two figures whose interests had become closely connected through higher education and international cooperation: His Imperial Majesty the Shah and Dr. Gaylord P. Harnwell, then President of the University of Pennsylvania. Penn’s own archival records identify the occasion as the conferral of an honorary LL.D. upon the Shah, with photographs documenting Harnwell presenting the degree and accompanying the monarch across the campus.
