Remembering Bernie Marcus | Home Depot

Bernie’s story

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The Home Depot is deeply saddened by the passing of our beloved founder, Bernard Marcus. To us he was simply “Bernie.”

Bernie was an inspiration in many ways. He was a master merchant and a customer service genius. Along with Arthur Blank and Ken Langone, Bernie helped create a nation of doers who could tackle any project, large or small. He loved our customers. He also loved the employees who made the company what it is today.

More than anything, he believed deeply in the company’s core values, especially giving back. He never lost sight of his humble roots and used his success not for fame or fortune, but to generously help others. In business and charity, Bernie was second to none in generosity and good will.

Born to be an entrepreneur

The son of Russian Jewish immigrants, Bernie was born in 1929 and grew up in an apartment in Newark, New Jersey. He dreamed of becoming a doctor. Since his family could not afford medical school, he enrolled in pharmacy school and received a degree from Rutgers University. Bernie said he had often interrupted classes to sell Amana freezers door-to-door.

After college, he worked his way up the corporate ladder at manufacturing conglomerate O’Dell’s and retail chain Vornado, Inc. In 1972, Bernie was chairman and president of Handy Dan Improvement Centers, Inc., a chain that was part of the Daylin conglomerate. While working for Daylin, Bernie formed a friendship with Arthur Blank that would last the rest of his life.

The watershed moment in Bernie’s career came when he was fired from Handy Dan in April 1978 along with Arthur and Ron Brill. Bernie faced the prospect of reinventing himself at 49. He already had a vision of a one-stop shop for do-it-yourselfers, something that didn’t exist in home improvement stores at the time. Investment banker Ken Langone helped secure the financing to get The Home Depot off the ground.

The following year, the first Home Depot stores opened in Atlanta and began a remarkable journey. From the first stores in 1979, Bernie and his co-founders developed a company that created jobs around the world – eventually employing more than 500,000 people.

To give back

Giving back was part of Bernie’s upbringing. “My mother taught me to be generous. She believed that the more you give, the more you get.”

Bernie would practice the Jewish tradition of tzedakah throughout his life. In his book Kick Up Some Dust: Lessons in Thinking Big, Giving Back, and Doing It Yourselfhe writes, “I was able to do things my parents could only dream of … and have focused on helping those I will never meet.”

Over the years, he had a tremendous impact on Atlanta health care. With his wife Billi, Bernie started The Marcus Institute, which today is the Marcus Autism Center, a non-profit subsidiary of Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta that treats more than 5,500 children with autism and related disorders a year.

Bernie also helped create Project Share in partnership with The Shepherd Center in Atlanta, known for treating brain and spinal injuries. To ensure that members of the military and veterans are diagnosed and cared for without financial constraints, The Marcus Foundation has covered the housing, transportation and care costs for military personnel with brain or spinal injuries sent to Shepherd. Bernie and Billi were inducted into the National Spinal Cord Injury Association’s Hall of Fame for their tireless efforts in this field.

In 1999, Bernie, Arthur and Ken started The Homer Fund to care for Home Depot employees suffering unexpected hardships. Employee contributions to The Homer Fund perfectly demonstrate our value of caring for our people. Since its founding, The Homer Fund has helped more than 194,000 employees.

Bernie and Billi joined The Giving Pledge in 2010, a commitment to give away most of their money during their lifetime.

“Making quarterly profits is one thing, but changing just one life is so much better,” Bernie wrote in a letter to Warren Buffett.

Bernie later told the Atlanta Journal Constitution, “I want to live to be 100 because I want to be able to give it away to the things that I really believe in.”

Bernie and Billi also built the Georgia Aquarium, one of the largest aquariums in the world. The aquarium is a non-profit conservation and research project. They dedicated it to the people of Georgia and associates, customers and shareholders of The Home Depot as a way of saying thank you for making The Home Depot a success.

In Atlanta, his contributions also included the Georgia Tech Marcus Center for Therapeutic Cell Characterization and Manufacturing, Grady Hospital’s Marcus Trauma and Emergency Center, the Marcus Heart and Vascular Center at Piedmont Atlanta Hospital, and a grant to the Construction Education Foundation of Georgia.

Bernie’s philanthropic work will be continued by The Marcus Foundation, focusing on Jewish causes, children, medical research, free enterprise and the community. His commitment to excellent customer service, entrepreneurial spirit, giving back and taking care of our people lives on in The Home Depot employees. To learn more about the fund, you can click on the link here: marcusfoundation.org.