Tony Marx, President of the New York Public Library, Profiled in The New York Times

The profile runs about 3300 words and is titled, “The Education of Tony Marx.”
From the Profile:

On paper, Anthony W. Marx, 53, would seem like an ideal candidate to run the nation’s largest public library system. Like many of his predecessors, most notably the near-legendary Vartan Gregorian, he was a well-regarded academic. And at Amherst, he proved himself not only a popular leader, but also an effective fund-raiser who in 2009 presided over what the college heralded as the largest unrestricted cash gift ever made to a liberal arts college ($100 million), a skill that would be crucial for anyone taking on the perennially cash-strapped library.
But there was more.
Mr. Marx grew up using his own branch of the library in Inwood, where his parents were anything but rich. His mother was a physical therapist and his father (whose education stopped at high school) worked at a steel trading company.
[Clip]
“We have existential questions to ask,” Mr. Marx was saying as a spokeswoman hovered nearby. “How do we build and deploy our staff to meet the educational needs of this city? How do we ensure that we are providing ideas and information to New Yorkers and to the world at a moment when that is all becoming digital while preserving our great book collection?”

Read the Complete Profile

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