Jeff Hunter ’96
The Merrill-Cazier Library is a quiet place today. And not just because it’s a library.
It’s mid-morning on a summer day, so the typical throng of students hustling in and out of the building’s front doors has slowed to a trickle, making it much easier for an impeccably dressed 83-year-old man to navigate the near vacant atrium.
While his destination is a room on the second story that bears his name, Mehdi Heravi is momentarily distracted by two paintings that adorn a nearby wall. Although Heravi has a room, the 305,000-square-foot library itself is named in honor of Milton Merrill and Stanford Cazier.
“I knew them both,” Heravi proclaims proudly as he walks past the portraits. “There’s not many people who can say that now.”
Merrill died at the age of 70 in 1971 after a long tenure at Utah State University in a variety of positions, most notably as USU’s first vice president from 1959 to ’65. And Cazier was an esteemed history professor who also served as president of the university from 1979 to ’91. He died in 2013.
Originally from Iran, Heravi was an undergrad and graduate student at Utah State from 1959 to ’64, and he interacted extensively with both men on his way to completing bachelor’s and master’s degrees in political science.
But it’s clear that Heravi holds a particular fondness for Merrill.
“He was a good, decent human being, and a first-rate professor,” Heravi states. “He was just the best of everything, even though he had such a heavy administrative duty. Merrill was a good listener, and everyone respected and loved Merrill.”
It was while recalling his relationship with Merrill during an interview on the third floor of Old Main that Heravi suddenly decided he needed to make a trip to the Dr. Mehdi Heravi Faculty Seminar Room in the library.
Inside is a small collection of chairs and tables, bookcases and cabinets, and a large-screen television on the wall. The walls also hold an assortment of framed diplomas, academic awards, and photographs featuring Heravi with U.S. presidents, senators, governors, and university presidents.
But while he enjoys pointing out his photos with the likes of both President Bushes, longtime U.S. Senator Orrin Hatch and former Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Mark Milley, Heravi is most proud of the succinct inscription adjacent to a black-and-white photograph of Milton Merrill: “To Mehdi with great good feeling. M R Merrill.”
“In those days, you didn’t say love to a man, but nowadays, you do,” Heravi notes with a smile. “That was the highest thing he could have said.”
Heravi clearly took Merrill’s personal note to heart.
Without a doubt, the beloved history professor, author, philanthropist, and founder of USU’s Heravi Peace Institute has strived to live his life with a “great good feeling” towards his fellow human beings.
Taking on the World
Mehdi Heravi first arrived in Utah in June 1958. And while a 16-year-old native of Iran doesn’t accidentally show up in a place like Cache Valley, it was definitely an unlikely set of circumstances that took him from Tehran to Logan.
He grew up in an affluent, well-educated family as the son of A.A. Heravi, an agricultural professor at the University of Iran. The elder Heravi, who attended the Sorbonne in Paris, sent Mehdi to school in England at the age of 9, with the intention of his son also ending up at a prestigious university in Europe.
But Heravi fell in love with American cinema as a teenager, and begged his father to let him visit the United States before starting college. And while he anticipated going to a large metropolis like New York City or Los Angeles, his father’s relationships with some professors from Utah State led him to make just a brief stop on the East Coast before flying to Salt Lake City.
“When the plane was descending, I was certain that the captain had experienced a mechanical problem,” Heravi says of his surprise at landing in an environment very different from the large urban areas he was familiar with like London or Paris. “The first week I was in Utah, I felt my father had exiled me. But I truly believe in fate, and it turned out to be the best thing for me. And even it if it was an exile, it turned out for the best.”
After arriving in Logan via Greyhound Bus, Heravi lived in a hotel for a week before making contact with George Meyer, a longtime professor of languages who was serving as the international student advisor at Utah State. Although Heravi wasn’t a student at the university, Meyer still helped the young Iranian find a small apartment on 200 North and get enrolled at Logan High School.
During Heravi’s senior year at Logan High — where he attended school with the notable likes of Nobel Prize winner Kip Thorne, NFL Hall of Famer and actor Merlin Olsen, and Quentin L. Cook, a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints’ Quorum of the Twelve Apostles — he lived on his own. His father financed his $20-a-month rent and daily meals downtown at Glauser’s Restaurant.
“My fellow students were kind of shocked that a person of my young age was living by myself,” Heravi notes. “But I enjoyed it very much. And after attending school in England, I was a very disciplined individual, and I didn’t go astray.”
Although his father anticipated that Heravi would return to Europe when he graduated from high school in 1959, his son had become so enamored with Cache Valley and its people that, “After graduation, I really didn’t even think of going any other place than Utah State.”
Heravi thrived academically at USU, while also getting involved in numerous student organizations. He successfully ran for the position of independent senator as a junior, serving the entire campus on the student senate, while also developing close relationships with members of the faculty and administration, like Merrill, Cazier and former USU President Daryl Chase.
After graduating in 1963, Heravi stayed at USU to complete his master’s, then remained for another year as a teacher’s assistant. Finally, after six years in Logan, he reluctantly left in 1964 to pursue a Ph.D. at the American University School of International Service in Washington, D.C. Heravi completed his doctorate in 1967, then took a teaching position at Tennessee Technological University, where he spent another half dozen years before returning to Iran.
Heravi was serving as the vice president at the National University of Iran when things changed drastically in his homeland in the late ’70s. Orchestrated by the Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, the Iranian Revolution led to the overthrow of the Pahlavi dynasty and the taking of more than 50 American hostages at the American Embassy in Tehran in the fall of 1979. While that saga unfolded every night on the evening news for 444 days in the United States, it was a difficult and dangerous time for those involved in higher education in Iran.
But while his career was in shambles, Heravi’s strong mental fortitude helped see him through those perilous challenges. Eventually he was allowed to leave Iran, and he returned to America with a renewed enthusiasm for peace and philanthropy.
“To have gone through this incredibly traumatic, personally horrific series of events at a stage of his life when he had been thriving. To have all of that work taken away and emerge hopeful about the future and hopeful about humanity when he saw such terrifying human behavior is truly inspirational,” says College of Humanities and Social Sciences Dean Joe Ward of Heravi.
Ward first met Heravi in 2016 when he was interviewing for his position at USU. In true Heravi fashion, they just happened to meet in a hotel lobby and struck up a conversation, “And we’ve been great friends ever since,” Ward says.
Heravi reconnected with Utah State University in the 1990s, but he’s been more heavily involved with projects like the Heravi Peace Institute and numerous scholarships and endowments over the past 12 years. Although Heravi has lived in Washington, D.C., for more than three decades, he frequently returns to Utah and has recently been contemplating moving to Cache Valley on a full-time basis.
Heravi — who is rarely seen not wearing a suit and tie, complete with cufflinks, a watch and a pocket square — believes it’s easy to be kind, and relishes getting to know new people, particularly students, whenever he visits his alma mater.
“Mehdi has shown our college and the university that Aggies can find a way to make a difference in the world, even when they’re put in extremely difficult circumstances,” Ward declares. “He’s dedicated himself to promoting peace, promoting friendship, and building stronger communities.
“He leads through his philanthropy, but also just through his example of how to be an engaged person in the world.”
The Language of Peace
While walking between Old Main and the Merrill-Cazier Library, Heravi takes in the view of the immaculately landscaped Utah State campus — framed perfectly to the east by the Bear River Mountains.
“The Quad is so beautiful,” he proclaims. “I’ve been on many college campuses, and nowhere is there a place as beautiful as this.”
Already surrounded by some of USU’s most notable structures, the iconic green space known as The Quad is in the process of welcoming a new building. Tucked away in the southwest corner, just beyond the cusp of Old Main Hill, construction is underway on the Mehdi Heravi Global Teaching and Learning Center.
Financed by donations from Heravi, Bob and DeAnn Fehlman, James Ratcliff, Ara Serjoie, Rosco Tolman, the State of Utah, the O.C. Tanner Foundation, and The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, the two-story, 37,700-square-foot structure will house programs from USU’s new Department of World Languages and Cultures — currently spread throughout four different buildings — in one location.
“My hope is that any person, especially the students who go through this building, will become a changemaker for the betterment of this society, this country, and the entire world,” Heravi said in a statement when the building was officially announced. “I hope and pray for these students that they should not talk about or predict the future but instead they should create the future for themselves, and I am sure they will be successful.”
Heravi was on hand for the groundbreaking on a chilly spring day in March 2022, and he plans to be on campus again this fall for the official opening. The ribbon cutting for the building is currently slated for Oct. 11, during this year’s Homecoming festivities.
Needless to say, the completion of the new learning center is highly anticipated in the College of Humanities and Social Sciences.
“I walked through it a couple of weeks ago, and it’s just spectacular,” Ward says. “… In many ways, this building is the final piece of The Quad, and so you want something that looks like it belongs. And I think they’ve done that. From the outside, it’s a fairly modest building. But inside, you can just see all the different types of spaces. And the main purpose of the building is creating opportunities for people to meet and have conversations in a wide variety of languages.”
Heravi, who received an honorary doctorate from former USU President Noelle Cockett in 2019, stated years ago: “I have faith in humanity. And hopefully will continue to have good health so I can achieve the things I want to achieve. Having a low aim in life is a crime. The sky is the limit and humanity is the priority.”
At one time, the construction of the Mehdi Heravi Global Teaching and Learning Center certainly seemed like a “pie in the sky” type of dream. But it’s become a reality, adding to Heravi’s legacy of sharing his abundance with Utah State University. Heravi is currently attached to about 40 different scholarships in CHaSS, while also funding scholarships in the College of Agriculture and Applied Sciences and the Emma Eccles Jones College of Education and Human Services.
And yet, he’s still looking for more opportunities to support his alma mater.
“I still feel like I have a lot to do at Utah State,” Heravi proclaims. “But it’s an obligation of love. The money really doesn’t matter that much to me,” he clarifies. “It’s knowing how a scholarship can really impact someone’s life that makes it feel like an obligation of love.”
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