Leonard Riggio, Barnes & Noble Founder and Former Chairman, Dies at Age 83

Riggio died on Aug. 27 in New York “surrounded by his loving family," a representative confirms to PEOPLE

Leonard Riggio, founder and former chairman of bookstore chain Barnes & Noble, has died at age 83.

A representative for Riggio confirmed his death on Aug. 27 to PEOPLE. Riggio died in New York after a battle with Alzheimer’s disease “surrounded by his loving family.”

Riggio was born on Feb, 28, 1941 in the Little Italy neighborhood of Manhattan, and spent his formative years in Brooklyn, where he skipped two grades while attending Brooklyn Technical High School. He attended night school at New York University and worked as a stock boy at the campus bookstore, before he decided to venture into retail.

Riggio founded Barnes & Noble in 1971, when he acquired the trade name and the then-flagship store in Manhattan.

“We shaped New York bookselling as much as New York shaped us,” Riggio told Publisher’s Weekly in 2007. Throughout his nearly 50 years at the helm of the company, Riggio helped expand the store nationally and opened some of its first superstores. He also innovated the store into a location where people could socialize and linger, according to the New York Times. Riggio stepped down from his chairman role in 2019.

In addition to Barnes and Noble, Riggio founded Barnes & Noble College Booksellers, MBS Textbook and video game company GameStop. According to PR Newswire, the companies under Riggio’s operation totaled more than 5,000 retail stores nationwide at the height of his career, and employed more than 100,000 people.

A longtime advocate for literary, public education and the arts, Riggio founded initiatives like the Writing and Democracy Program at The New School, the “Close the book on Hate" program for the Anti-Defamation League and the DIA: Beacon, one of the largest contemporary art museums in the world. He was also the recipient of numerous accolades, including the Ellis Island Medal of Honor, the Frederick Douglass Medallion and the Americanism Award, which is the highest honor one can receive from the Anti-Defamation League.

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Riggio is survived by Louise, his wife of 43 years, daughters Lisa Rollo (Christopher), Donna Cortese (Steven) and Stephanie Bulger (Michael), as well as his brother Stephen (Laura), grandchildren, nieces and nephews.

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