Late founder of Barnes & Noble chain was arts benefactor in HV

A funeral mass was scheduled to take place on Friday in Manhattan for Leonard Riggio, founder and former chairman of Barnes & Noble, Inc. Riggio died as a result of Alzheimer’s disease at age 83.

As an advocate for public education, literacy, and the arts, Riggio funded DIA:Beacon, located in the Dutchess County’s City of Beacon. It is one of the largest contemporary art museums in the world that occupies what at one time was a Nabisco box printing factory. Riggio was instrumental helping create the space, which is said to have more square footage than several major New York City art museums combined. One of Riggio’s donations to DIA:Beacon was reported to have amounted to $30 million. The gallery at 3 Beekman St. in Beacon is known as Riggio Galleries.

In 1971, Riggio bought the Barnes & Noble trade name and its single location in Manhattan, merging it with his own business. He made numerous acquisitions over the years, growing it into a massive operation. Today, Barnes & Noble has approximately 600 stores including outlets in Yonkers, Eastchester, Hartsdale, White Plains, Mohegan Lake, Cortlandt Manor, Nanuet and West Nyack.

In addition to Barnes & Noble Booksellers, Riggio also founded Barnes & Noble College Booksellers, the largest operator of college campus bookstores, MBS Textbook Exchange, the largest wholesale textbook distributor, and GameStop, the largest operator of videogame and entertainment software stores. At the pinnacle of his career, the companies Riggio operated totaled more than 5,000 retail stores across the 50 states, employing more than 100,000 people.