Mark K. Updegrove
Director, Lyndon Baines Johnson Library and Museum
2313 Red River Street, Austin, Texas 78705
mark.updegrove@nara.gov
512.721.0158
Biographical Note:
Presidential historian Mark K. Updegrove became Director of the LBJ Library & Museum on October 11, 2009. He serves as the Library’s fourth Director since its opening in 1971. Called "one of the country's best historians" by CNN, Updegrove is an award-winning author with over two decades of leadership experience within top media organizations.
Updegrove has written two books relating to the American presidency: Baptism By Fire: Eight Presidents Who Took Office in Times of Crisis (2009) and Second Acts: Presidential Lives and Legacies After the White House (2006). His third book, In Search of LBJ: A Presidential Oral History, will be published by Random House in early 2012.
A native of Philadelphia, Updegrove spent much of his career at Time magazine, where he became Los Angeles manager, and president of Time Canada, Time's separate Canadian edition and operation, in Toronto. He then went to New York as publisher of Newsweek, and publisher of Nickelodeon magazine and MTV magazine for MTV Networks. Later he returned to Toronto as VP of sales and operations for Yahoo! Canada.
Additionally, Updegrove has written for American Heritage, The Nation, Time, and Worth, and is often called on by the national media to comment on the presidency and national political affairs. While at Time, he conceived and co-developed “Time and the Presidency,” a multi-media program that included features in the magazine and a museum exhibit that appeared at several presidential libraries, including the LBJ Library.
Updegrove graduated from the University of Maryland with a Bachelor of Arts in Economics in 1984. He and his wife Evelyn have two children, Charlie and Tallie.