Bernard “Bernie” Marcus, co-founder and major Republican donor and philanthropist, has died at age 95, the home improvement chain announced Tuesday.
“The entire Home Depot family is deeply saddened by the passing of our co-founder Bernie Marcus. We owe an immeasurable debt of gratitude to Bernie. He was a master merchant and visionary in retail,” Atlanta-based Home Depot said in a statement. “But more importantly, he was We value our partners, customers and communities above all else. He left us an invaluable legacy that is the backbone of our company: our values and our culture.
A company spokesman said that he died on Monday at his home in Boca Raton, Florida, surrounded by his family.
Home Depot
The billionaire made his fortune by co-founding The Home Depot with Arthur Blank in 1978, where the two built the hardware store into a giant retail chain that now operates 2,300 stores and employs more than 500,000.
Marcus was CEO of Home Depot until 1997 and served as Chairman of the Board of Directors until his retirement in 2002. He retired from Home Depot in 2001 after serving as president, CEO and co-president.
Marcus’s net worth is $7.4 billion, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index.
Marcus, an outspoken supporter of former President Donald Trump, and his wife contributed $7 million to committees supporting Trump’s 2016 campaign and nearly $8 million to Republicans in the 2018 midterm elections. As of September, he had given more than $1.8 million to support Trump in Current session.
Marcus told the Financial Times in 2022 that he was concerned about the future of capitalism, and told the newspaper that he criticized “socialism” in America for people not wanting to work. “Nobody cares. ‘Just give it to me. Send me the money. I don’t want to work – I’m too lazy, I’m too fat, I’m too stupid.’
He founded the Jerusalem-based Israel Democracy Institute in 1991, and in 2003 gave $250 million to the state of Georgia to fund his aquarium in Atlanta.
Marcus was born in 1929 to Russian Jewish immigrants in Newark, New Jersey, and grew up poor.
He wanted to become a doctor, but instead trained to become a pharmacist, graduating from Rutgers University in 1954.
In addition to his wife, Billie, Marcus leaves behind three children.