Gilbert M. Grosvenor is chairman of the National Geographic Society’s board of trustees and its Education Foundation. He retired June 1, 1996, as the president of the Society, the fifth generation of his family to have served in that position. He graduated from Yale University in 1954 and joined the Society staff that year as a picture editor. He was editor of National Geographic magazine from 1970 to 1980, when he became the Society’s 14th president.