Some people find their true calling early in life. Leonard Riggio, chairman of Barnes & Noble, found it when he was inspired to open his first bookshop. He went on to revolutionize the bookselling landscape by creating book superstores. The envy of his competitors, he used strategic pricing, expanded selections, cleverly designed spaces, and cozy cafés to entice customers and boost sales.
Former Warner-Lambert CEO Melvin Goodes, who joined the pharmaceutical company in 1965, found similar inspiration while working to stabilize the struggling drugmaker. Confronted by critics of the cholesterol-reducing drug Lipitor, Goodes tried the drug himself and was inspired to share the positive results with financial analysts. Lipitor became the world’s best-selling drug, generating $2 billion in sales. Hewlett-Packard executive Roy Clay Sr. remained undeterred after discrimination stood in the way of his professional achievement. He persisted, eventually becoming Hewlett-Packard’s first Black executive and leading the team that built HP’s first computer. Frances Conley, Stanford’s first female surgical resident, boldly protested the promotion of a sexist colleague, inspiring other women to share their own stories. Stanford’s response encouraged her to remain on staff. Although Conley was never embraced by her male team, she was deeply respected by the many patients—and countless female medical students—whom she inspired.
Leonard Riggio
Entrepreneur turned bookstores into literary supermarkets
He studied metallurgical engineering at New York University, but it was his job at the school’s bookstore that inspired a bold entrepreneurial career. In 1971, Riggio bought a single Barnes & Noble bookstore in New York. Deeming rival stores fusty and elitist, he built Barnes & Noble into the largest US bookselling chain, featuring giant stores that offered big discounts on bestsellers, as well as music, games, toys, and coffee bars. Unlike other chains, Barnes & Noble survived the arrival of Amazon. Riggio provided homes for victims of Hurricane Katrina and helped transform a former Nabisco box-printing factory on the Hudson River into the Dia Beacon art museum.
Washington PostWall Street JournalArie Kopelman
Chanel executive expanded the French fashion firm’s reach in America
Kopelman, a veteran Madison Avenue advertising executive, knew little about fashion or fragrance when he was recruited as president of Chanel’s US operations in 1985. In some ways, that was an advantage. While the German clothing designer Karl Lagerfeld oversaw the creative fashion work, Kopelman used his outsider’s perspective to sharpen the marketing. He promoted Chanel No. 5 perfume on MTV, opened more boutiques, and enhanced the selection of eyewear, cosmetics, and skin care lines. Sales surged to $7 billion from $357 million during his 19-year run. Kopelman also raised money for the East Side House Settlement, a Bronx social services center, and served on the US Holocaust Memorial Council.
New York TimesWomen’s Wear Daily“Sales surged to $7 billion from $357 million during his 19-year run.”
Frances Conley
Female neurosurgeon denounced sexism in the operating room
She had thought that enduring groping and sexist slights was the price of being one of the few female neurosurgeons in America and the first to become a tenured professor of neurosurgery at a US medical school. In 1991, Conley took a bold stand, resigning from the Stanford School of Medicine to protest the promotion to department chair of a male surgeon she accused of abominable behavior. While Conley later chose to stay at Stanford after the colleague’s promotion was rescinded, her widely publicized protest emboldened other female doctors to report similar sexist behavior—long before the #MeToo movement brought attention to wrongdoing in other workplaces. Although full respect from male colleagues eluded her, Conley wrote that she received that tribute from another group—her many grateful patients.
New York TimesWashington PostMelvin Goodes
Former Warner-Lambert CEO sought cure for Alzheimer’s, including his own
An Alzheimer’s diagnosis in 2009 cruelly interrupted the retirement routine of Goodes, who had headed Warner-Lambert in the 1990s when it introduced the blockbuster cholesterol-lowering drug Lipitor. He tried experimental Alzheimer drugs and resolved to help future generations find a cure. Through the Alzheimer’s Drug Discovery Foundation, the Canadian-born Goodes created an annual prize of $150,000 in research funding for scientists who made advances in developing drugs to combat the disease. “If I can’t beat it,” Goodes said, “I’m going to do all I can to make sure it eventually gets beaten.” As for Lipitor, some Warner-Lambert executives were skeptical the medication would find a profitable place in a crowded market. Goodes authorized further tests and tried the drug himself. It became the world’s top-selling drug.
Wall Street JournalHamilton SpectatorCurtis J. Moody
Ohio entrepreneur built biggest Black-owned architecture firm in the United States
He was used to being underestimated. When Moody told a junior high guidance counselor that he aspired to become an architect, she suggested he should aim a bit lower, by trying to qualify as a draftsman. That didn’t stop Moody, the son of a factory worker, from going on to earn a degree in architecture in 1973 from Ohio State, where he also was a walk-on varsity basketball player. Less than a decade later, he cofounded a design firm, Moody Nolan, where he served as CEO. The firm’s projects have included the Wintrust Arena in Chicago and an expansion of the Jacob K. Javits Convention Center in New York. Among many other honors, the firm received the American Institute of Architects’ highest award, the AIA Architecture Award. Earlier this year, Moody Nolan won a mandate to design the Programs & Athletic Center at the Obama Presidential Center in Chicago.
Columbus DispatchArchitectural RecordMoody Nolan projectsWalt Ehmer
Waffle House CEO worked on the front lines
Many people come to the 24/7 southern diner chain for breakfast. Others arrive in the wee hours after bars close. Ehmer, as the chief executive, showed up regularly to make sure customers were satisfied. The New Jersey–born executive, who joined the company in 1992 as a senior buyer and worked his way up to CEO in 2012, believed in spending most of his work time outside the office and wanted to make sure the restaurants were open in all kinds of weather. Waffle House diners are so reliably open that federal emergency management officials consider it a very bad sign if any of them turn out the lights. In any kind of weather, Ehmer liked to keep things simple. “We don’t have any big secrets,” he said. “I always tell people, it’s just bacon and eggs.”
New York TimesAtlanta Journal-ConstitutionCissy Houston
Gospel singer won Grammy Awards and helped make her daughter a superstar
She won two Grammy Awards for gospel music and supplied thrilling backup vocals to the likes of Aretha Franklin, Jimi Hendrix, and Elvis Presley. Her “sha-la-las” embellished Van Morrison’s hit “Brown Eyed Girl.” She told her story in a memoir, How Sweet the Sound: My Life with God and Gospel. Yet Houston, who learned to sing in Baptist churches, became best known as the mother of Whitney Houston, whose pop-singing career she nurtured. After her daughter’s struggles with drugs and untimely death, Houston wrote another book, this time about her daughter, and asked the question that would torment any parent: “Could I have saved her somehow?”
Washington PostLos Angeles TimesRoy Clay Sr.
Black executive led computer development at Hewlett-Packard
The best-known names in Silicon Valley history belong to White males. Often overlooked is Clay’s role as lead software developer for Hewlett-Packard’s first computer, the HP 2116A, introduced in 1966. After earning a math degree at St. Louis University, Clay moved to California and found computer programming jobs at a national laboratory and at Control Data Corporation before being recruited by HP in 1965. In turn, he recruited talent from historically Black universities that hadn’t been on Silicon Valley’s radar. Later, Clay served as vice mayor of Palo Alto, California, and advised prominent venture capitalists. He was elected to the Silicon Valley Engineering Council Hall of Fame and wrote a memoir on his career, Unstoppable: The Unlikely Story of a Silicon Valley Godfather.
USA TodayPalo Alto MuseumLily Ebert
Holocaust survivor told her story to a new generation, via TikTok
Her mission, she once said, was “to explain the unexplainable.” Ebert, a Hungarian-born Jew who later lived in Israel and then England, hesitated at first but grew bolder as she aged and told her story vividly at all kinds of gatherings, including one at a train station in London. She explained how her mother and two of her siblings were murdered at Auschwitz, and how she and two younger sisters survived near starvation and slave labor. When Ebert was in her late 90s, a great-grandson, Dov Forman, created an account for her on TikTok to reach younger people. Together, they wrote a bestseller, Lily’s Promise. King Charles III made her a Member of the Order of the British Empire. Few were left who could give a firsthand account, making her message of love and tolerance all the more urgent.
Wall Street JournalWashington PostLillian Schwartz
Restless artist evolved from paint brushes to computers
She had already created conventional paintings, motorized sculptures, and art assembled from junk. When Schwartz discovered computers at Bell Labs in the late 1960s, she saw them as artistic tools and became one of the first artists to use them to generate films and images. There was no Adobe Photoshop or Illustrator when she began her experiments. Instead, she worked with punch cards fed into an IBM mainframe. Her studies of digitized images led her to postulate that Leonardo da Vinci used himself as a model for the Mona Lisa. She won a New York Emmy Award for a computer-generated public-service announcement and worked as a consultant for IBM and Lucent Technologies. Her work is housed at the Henry Ford Museum in Dearborn, Michigan. Two years ago, in her mid-90s, Schwartz was finally featured in the Venice Biennale exhibition.
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