Leonard Riggio, the person behind Barnes & Noble, one of many largest bookstores in the US, has died at age 83.
In line with Publishing Views, Riggio’s household says he died “following a valiant battle with Alzheimer’s illness.” A Barnes & Noble Instagram put up memorialized the groundbreaking businessman.
The memorial assertion reads, “We’re deeply saddened to share the passing of Leonard Riggio, the founder and former chairman of Barnes & Noble, Inc., on August 27, 2024, on the age of 83. Len’s imaginative and prescient and entrepreneurial spirit reworked the retail panorama, establishing Barnes & Noble as the most important bookstore chain within the U.S.”
The assertion continued, “His management spanned a long time, throughout which he not solely grew the corporate but additionally nurtured a tradition of innovation and a love for studying. A real son of New York, public servant, and tireless advocate for public schooling, literacy, and the humanities, he supported organizations such because the Youngsters’s Protection Fund, the Anti-Defamation League and DIA. We honor his exceptional contributions and lengthen our deepest condolences to his household. Len will probably be enormously missed by all who knew him.”
A firm web page devoted to the retail chain’s historical past defined Riggio’s general imaginative and prescient for what would change into a cushty place for ebook lovers to browse and buy new books. It says, “Within the early Nineteen Nineties, Mr. Riggio got here up with the idea of the ‘superstore,’ which helped revolutionize bookselling by combining an enormous and deep choice of ebook titles with an skilled bookselling employees in addition to a heat, snug and spacious environment. The shops provided a complete stock of books, music, academic toys and video games and presents.”
Past creating Barnes & Noble, Riggio created a separate chain of campus bookstores that he bought to Barnes & Noble together with the wholesale distributor MBS Textbook Alternate. He additionally helmed the online game and software program retailer GameStop.
Riggio is survived by his spouse Louise, his brother Stephen, three daughters, grandchildren, nieces, and a nephew.
