Leonard Riggio, founder and former chairman of Barnes & Noble, Inc., has died following a valiant battle with Alzheimer’s illness. He was 83.
Len, as he was identified, is survived by his spouse of 43 years, Louise, his three devoted daughters, Lisa Rollo (Christopher) of Jupiter, Florida, Donna Cortese (Steven) of Oyster Bay, New York, and Stephanie Bulger (Michael) of Bridgehampton, New York. He’s additionally survived by his loving brother Stephen (Laura) of New York Metropolis, together with 4 grandsons, Steven, Anthony and Joseph Cortese and Leo Bulger, nieces Laura Nayar (Karan) and Christina Fitzsimmons (Michael) and nephew, Jake Riggio. He was preceded in demise by his dad and mom, Stephen and Lena Riggio, his brother Vincent “Jimi” Riggio (Joann Riggio), and niece, Melissa Ann Riggio.
A real son of New York, Mr. Riggio was born in Manhattan’s Little Italy earlier than spending his youth in Brooklyn the place he attended Brooklyn Technical Excessive Faculty, which he graduated from in 1958 on the age of 16 having skipped two grades. He started attending evening college at New York College, shortly deciding that his time was higher spent climbing the ranks within the school bookstore (the place he started as a inventory boy) than sitting at school. His choice proved to be a fruitful one. Mr. Riggio was a fast research and quickly rose by means of the ranks because of his tenacity, charisma, and preternatural sense of the retail expertise. Identified for his entrepreneurial spirit and monetary acumen, he turned a pioneer within the retail world.
Along with Barnes & Noble Booksellers, the biggest operator of retail bookstores, Mr. Riggio additionally based Barnes & Noble Faculty Booksellers, the biggest operator of school campus bookstores, MBS Textbook Change, the biggest wholesale textbook distributor, and GameStop, the biggest operator of videogame and leisure software program shops. On the pinnacle of his profession, the businesses Mr. Riggio operated totaled greater than 5,000 retail shops throughout the 50 states, using greater than 100,000 individuals and eternally altering the retail panorama of America.
Deeply invested in social justice causes hoping to handle what he referred to as the unfinished enterprise of the civil rights motion, Mr. Riggio served on the board of the Youngsters’s Protection Fund, the place he organized and funded the 1996 Stand for Youngsters March in Washington, D.C. Subsequently, together with his spouse Louise, he constructed the Freedom Faculty’s Langston Hughes Library and Riggio-Lynch Chapel on the Alex Haley Farm in Clinton, Tennessee.
Within the wake of the devastation of Hurricane Katrina, Mr. Riggio created Venture Dwelling Once more, constructing and freely giving 101 houses to households within the Gentilly neighborhood of New Orleans, revitalizing and reinvigorating a complete neighborhood that had been ravaged by the storm.
As a tireless advocate for public training, literacy, and the humanities, Mr. Riggio funded a number of vital initiatives together with DIA:Beacon, one of many largest up to date artwork museums on this planet. He additionally created a Writing and Democracy Program on the New Faculty, an revolutionary curriculum that explored the intersection between citizenship and rhetorical abilities and encompassed 25 full scholarships to this system; the Brooklyn Tech Basis, the primary and largest non-public endowment for a public highschool; and the “Shut the E-book on Hate” program for the Anti-Defamation League, which issued hundreds of thousands of booklets designed to assist information dad and mom with youngsters who had been both victims of hate or felt anger or hatred themselves.
His dedication to selling equality and variety earned him quite a few awards, together with the Ellis Island Medal of Honor and the Frederick Douglass Medallion. In 2002, he acquired the Americanism Award, the very best honor bestowed by the Anti-Defamation League. The award cited his work “to have fun range and make the dream of freedom and equality a actuality for therefore many People.”
Mr. Riggio acquired honorary levels from Baruch Faculty of the Metropolis College of New York, Bentley Faculty, Adelphi College, Tusculum Faculty, Tennessee Tech College, Kingsborough Group Faculty, and Lengthy Island College. He was inducted into the Academy of Distinguished Entrepreneurs at Babson Faculty and the Texas A&M College Retail Corridor of Fame.
A proud Italian American, Mr. Riggio sat on the board of the Columbus Residents Basis and served because the 2017 Grand Marshall for the Italian American Heritage Day Parade in New York Metropolis. He was additionally named the 2002 Borough of Brooklyn Italian American Man of the 12 months.
As a passionate supporter of and donor to the Democratic Get together, Mr. Riggio was one of many founding members of the Democratic Nationwide Conference (DNC) Trustees and raised hundreds of thousands for the campaigns of David Dinkins, Charlie Rangel, Invoice Bradley, and different distinguished democrats, lots of whom proudly counted him as a good friend and trusted advisor.
A Mass of Christian burial will happen on Friday, Aug. 30, 2024 at 10:00 am at The Basilica of St. Patrick’s Previous Cathedral, 263 Mulberry Avenue, with a public celebration of Mr. Riggio’s life to be introduced at a later date. In lieu of flowers, the household asks that donations be made in his reminiscence to the Alzheimer’s Affiliation.
