Meyerson retired from the university presidency in January 1981, but remained active at Penn as University Professor of Public Policy Analysis and City and Regional Planning and as chair of the University of Pennsylvania Foundation, the University of Pennsylvania Press (1984-1997; then chair emeritus), the Institute for Research on Higher Education, and the Monell Chemical Senses Center. He co-chaired Penn's 250th anniversary celebration (1990). He served on the boards of the Mahoney Institute of Neurological Sciences, the Lauder Institute of Management and International Studies, and the Institute for Strategic Threat Analysis and Response. He chaired the University's Fels Center of Government program until February 1996. In 1993 he and his wife were elected as co-presidents of the Friends of the Library, in which capacity they served on the Library's Board of Overseers.