 In 1980, Jenkins was elected president of the Antiquarian Booksellers' Association of America.In this capacity, he worked as principal organizer of a national system for identifying and publicizing the theft or loss of rare books and other valuable materials from libraries, booksellers, and private collections, and for seeing that the thieves are arrested and prosecuted.Jenkins became a champion poker player in Las Vegas, Nevada, where he was known as "Austin Squatty" because of his habit of sitting cross-legged.