The Home Depot Co-Founder Bernard Marcus Dead at 95

Bernard “Bernie” Marcus, who co-founded the home improvement retail chain the Home Depot, has died, according to CNN.

He was 95 years old.

“The Home Depot is deeply saddened by the passing of our beloved founder, Bernard Marcus,” the store wrote in a statement on its website. “To us, he was simply ‘Bernie.'”

• Marcus was born in 1929 in New Jersey to Russian Jewish immigrant parents.
• He met Arthur Blank while both were employed at a hardware store chain called Handy Dan Home Improvement.
• Both men were fired after a change in management, and they came up with the idea to launch their own chain of stores, which would be larger than traditional hardware stores.
• They founded the Home Depot in 1978, and opened the chain’s first two stores in Atlanta the following year.

CNN reports that Marcus was a billionaire and a Republican mega-donor who was an ardent supporter of former U.S. president Donald Trump.

Per Bloomberg’s Billionaire Index, Marcus’ net worth was about $7.4 billion, a fortune he amassed from his position as the founder and CEO of Home Depot. He was the CEO of the retail giant until 1997, and remained its chairman until he retired in 2002.

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According to Home Depot’s website, Marcus and his wife Billi also founded the Marcus Autism Center, an Atlanta-based facility that treats children with autism and similar disorders. He also launched an initiative called Project Share to help treat people at Atlanta’s the Shepherd Center with brain and spinal injuries, and his the Marcus Foundation provides financial support for military service members and veterans receiving treatment at the facility.

He donated to several other charitable organizations, especially Jewish and medical organizations, throughout his lifetime. In 2005, Marcus provided a $250 million grant to open the Georgia Aquarium.

Marcus was also a vocal supporter of Trump’s election campaigns in 2016 and 2020. According to Reuters, he and his wife were the seventh-largest individual Republican donors in 2020, sending nearly $25 million to GOP campaigns.

In late 2023, Marcus announced he was supporting Trump for the 2024 election cycle, but told Reuters that he would not be among Trump’s biggest financial backers.

Marcus’ cause of death was not immediately available.