LeClerc was the former president of the New York Public Library, from the main Bryant Park branch to the dozens of smaller outposts scattered across the five boroughs.

A Holy Cross grad, LeClerc's graduate work was as good a signal as any that he might end up a bookworm: He earned a Ph.D. in French literature from Columbia. He eventually moved from academia to university administration, becoming provost of Baruch College in 1984 and then president of Hunter College in 1988. In 1993 the New York Public Library's board, chaired at the time by Marshall Rose, selected LeClerc to lead the NYPL after its previous president Timothy S. Healy suddenly died of a heart attack. LeClerc ran the institution for over a decade, until 2011.

LeClerc (it's pronounced luh-CLARE) has earned both criticism and praise for his work at the Library. His decision to partner with Google to scan out of copyright books in the library's collections and make them available on the Internet delighted many. Preservationists applauded him for undertaking a $50 million, three-year renovation of the facade and plaza at the Beaux-Arts Bryant Park flagship in 2007. But he's had to deal with detractors, too. In order to fill in budget holes and help fund long-term projects, like a $1 billion expansion, LeClerc sold off 18 paintings worth $52 million from the library's collection. And his decision to cut back library hours in 2002 as part of a budget-balancing plan earned him widespread derision (among nerdy bookworms, at least). However, in 2011, the lure of France wooed him to become the director of Columbia's Europe Global Center in Paris. [Image via Getty]