Libby was awarded a post-graduate National Defense Education Act Fellowship to attend Tulane University, New Orleans, Louisiana, where he was accepted into the doctoral program with an interest in turn of the century art and literature journals published in England, such as the Savoy and the Yellow Book.

After graduation from Tulane with another masters in English Literature and the completion of all coursework and examinations for the Ph.D. degree,[1] Libby was hired as an assistant professor by Stetson University in 1972.

At Stetson University, DeLand, Florida, Libby developed the curriculum for a number of upper-division interdisciplinary courses for a new major in the arts and humanities.

Libby’s "Artistic Taste in Pre-Castro Cuba" was one of the lead papers presented at the Southeastern Museum Conference, Charleston, South Carolina, 1975.

Libby was also selected for and completed one of the first classes of the Smithsonian Institution’s Museum Leadership and Management Certification Program directed by Jane Glaser.

Gary R. Libby lives in a restored National Register Colonial Revival House built in 1925 in Daytona Beach.

He is active in a number of area heritage, arts and cultural organizations and was selected as a Daytona Beach Hometown Hero in 2016.

He is a two-time past president of the Florida Art Museum Directors Association who presented him with their Lifetime Achievement Award in 2000.

[3] Libby was elected to the Board of Visitors at the Cornell Fine Art Museum at Rollins College, Winter Park, Florida, 2014, and chaired the Exhibitions Committee.