In the job he was destined for, a presidential historian helps the public re-imagine a misunderstood President.

When Mark Updegrove was 12, his parents took him to the Bicentennial Celebration in Philadelphia where he grew up. It was 1976, and President Gerald Ford drove by in a Lincoln. “There was the President of the United States…It really struck me,” he says, from President Lyndon B. Johnson’s private quarters on the 10th floor of the Presidential Library, where he now holds the job of Library Director. A young Updegrove was hooked and started collecting Presidents’ autographs and drawing caricatures of them. He has met six Presidents and interviewed four, including Gerald Ford and his recent interview with George W. Bush for December’s Texas Monthly. “There is no institution in this country who has more of an effect on who we are and how we evolve than the Presidency of the United States,” he says. “I just find the subject infinitely interesting and LBJ in particular is just a fascinating and largely misunderstood historical figure.”

“A lot of people just associate President Johnson with the Vietnam War and neglect to recognize his accomplishments in civil rights, education, environmental reform and protection, and immigration,” he says. One way that Updegrove will give more insights on LBJ is with the book he is currently working on In Search of LBJ: A Presidential Oral History (to be published in 2012), his third book on presidential history. "You can’t know LBJ unless you see him through the eyes of those who knew him. That's why I wanted to do an oral history—you get an indication of his power, his passion, and his fierce desire to effect change in this country,” he says. “You can't get a clear sense of him in photographs or in film. If you hear from people who experienced him, then you get a better feeling for how important he was and how he was truly bigger than life."

Updegrove’s excitement for LBJ’s world is infectious as we tour the Johnson quarters (whose décor has not changed since his presidency), and he points out Johnson’s desk that was in his private office off the Oval Office, the extra long sofa that suited his 6’3” frame for naps, the bright green shag carpet circa 1973 in the restroom, and the dining room table, where Updegrove still hosts dinners today. At the dinner table, Mrs. Johnson and Updegrove’s predecessor Harry Middleton’s (who held the post for 30 years) rule still stands—one conversation at the table only. “Nobody misses out on what’s being said, and everyone contributes. It makes for a warm and intimate evening,” he says. Because it’s a closed to the public space, only a few people have visited the hallow nest with grand views of the stadium and UT Tower—including notables like Richard Nixon, Gerald Ford, Jimmy Carter, Queen Elizabeth, and Prince Charles.

The Library is the repository of all the documents, photographs, and anything related to the Johnson administration, from a letter from a citizen to a gift from heads of state. It is also an archive and a museum devoted to the 36th President and his life, along with changing exhibits like the recent one on Walter Cronkite. “With our programs, we not only want to look back at the past, which is at the core of who we are, but it was also Johnson’s wish and mine too, to look at the future where we address issues that are important to the country now and will be in the future.” Just in the last year, program guests included Bob Schieffer, Lesley Stahl, Rory Kennedy, and in the next year, look for Sandra Day O’Connor, Julian Bond, Jimmy Carter, and Woodward and Bernstein.

Up until October 2009 when Updegrove took this job, he spent his career in magazines—president of TIME Canada, publisher of Newsweek, publisher of Nickelodeon and MTV magazines, and an executive at Yahoo. But, he doesn’t miss the pace of life in the big city. “New York is an incomparable city. There is a vitality and excitement about it that no other city matches, but it’s also exhausting. I appreciate the grace and hospitality of Texans and the balanced lives they have. Austin is the best of all worlds.” Updegrove lives with his wife and two children (Charlie, 10, and Tallie, 4) in West Austin. “We used to joke that the only thing Austinites do is sit around and talk about how great Austin is and now I am one of them!”

Even though Updegrove already boasts impressive credentials as an author and businessman, he says the best career moments are yet to come. “They will be through this institution…I really love what I am doing now. I have found no greater fulfillment than being the Director of this Library because it marries many of my interests,” he says. “I get to meet the biggest names and best minds of our time while continuing to write and put together a better, clearer view of the Johnson administration. Plus, I am living in a place that I love, where I can be outside all year…what’s better than that?”