Billionaire Home Depot co-founder Bernard Marcus dies at age 95

Bernard “Bernie” Marcus, who grew up the son of poor Russian immigrants in New Jersey and went on to found and run the home improvement chain The Home Depot, died Monday at age 95.

Statements from The Home Depot and The Marcus Foundation did not reveal his cause of death.

As a result of his stock ownership in The Home Depot, Marcus became a billionaire in 1997. Forbes estimates his net worth at $11 billion.

Marcus, a vocal supporter of and donor to the Republican Party and its candidates, endorsed Donald Trump for president in November 2023 in a opinion piece before RealClearPolitics.

Marcus, whose parents immigrated from Russia to the United States, grew up the youngest of four children in a fourth-floor apartment in Newark, New Jersey. He attended Rutgers University in New Jersey and hoped to become a doctor. He was accepted to Harvard University Medical School, but could not afford the fee to attend. Instead, he graduated with a degree in pharmacy from Rutgers and went to work in corporate America, including at retailers.

Marcus founded The Home Depot in 1978, when he was 49, with Arthur Blank, after the two men were fired from regional hardware company Handy Dan Improvement Centers. Armed with financing secured by investment banker Ken Langone—the third co-founder of Home Depot—Marcus and Blank opened their first two stores in Atlanta in 1979. Marcus served as the company’s first CEO and then its chairman; he retired in 2002. Today, The Home Depot employs more than 500,000 people in approximately 2,300 stores in the United States, Canada and Mexico, with 2023 revenue of nearly $153 billion.

Marcus and his wife Billi were among the first to sign The Giving Pledge, a group of super-wealthy who promise to give at least half of their wealth to charity during their lifetime or in their will. (Millionaires Bill and Melinda Gates and Warren Buffett launched the Giving Pledge in 2010.) The couple have directed their gifts to a variety of causes, including health care and medical research, veterans, Israel and Jewish causes. Beneficiaries include the Marcus Autism Center, part of Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta, as well as the Georgia Aquarium in Atlanta, to which Bernie and Billi donated $250 million.

In September this year, Forbes gave Bernie and Billi Marcus the Forbes 400 Lifetime Achievement Award for philanthropy. The couple ranks among the country’s most generous philanthropists at Forbes’ annual list of the top 25 givers, with their lifetime performance estimated by Forbes to more than 1.7 billion

Marcus is survived by his wife Billi and two sons, Frederick Marcus and Michael Morris. He was predeceased by his daughter, Susanne Marcus Collins.