A Dayton, Ohio, businessman, Stuart A. Rose is Executive Chair of the Board and Founder of REX American Resources Corporation, a New York Stock Exchange company that is one of the leading ethanol producers in the world. He is a rare book collector of international acclaim with a distinguished and extensive private library that spans centuries of the arts, literature, and the sciences.

The Stuart Rose Family Foundation, of which Rose is chair and president, focuses on children’s programs, rare book libraries, and education and cultural projects. In 2013, Rose was appointed as a board member and head of the collection committee of the Folgers Library Board of Governors, the top Shakespeare rare book library in the world. A gift from Rose in 2013 made possible Emory’s purchase of a collection of rare manuscripts by some of the world’s great poets, from an unpublished poem by John Clare to drafts of works by Sylvia Plath, Ted Hughes, Samuel Beckett, W. B. Yeats, Seamus Heaney, and Derek Mahon. In fall 2015, Emory’s Manuscript, Archives, and Rare Book Library (MARBL) was renamed in honor of Rose, out of recognition for his ongoing support and significant gift to MARBL.