Home Depot co-founder Bernie Marcus dead at 95
Bernard Marcus, the co-founder of The Home Depot and a billionaire philanthropist, has died at the age of 95.
“The entire Home Depot family is deeply saddened by the death of our cofounder Bernie Marcus,” The Home Depot said in a statement. “Bernie was an inspiration in many ways. He was a master merchant and a genius with customer service. Together 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 associates who made the company what it is today.”
The son of Russian Jewish immigrants, Marcus was born in 1929 and grew up in Newark, N.J. After college, he worked his way up the corporate ladder at manufacturing conglomerate O’Dell’s and retail chain Vornado.
By 1972, Marcus was the chairman of the board and president of Handy Dan Improvement Centers, part of the Daylin conglomerate. While working for Daylin, Bernie met Arthur Blank. The two were fired from Handy Dan in April 1978.
Marcus, who was 49 at the time, already had a vision of a one-stop shop for do-it-yourselfers, something that did not exist in the home improvement retail landscape at the time. One year later, in 1979, he and Blank opened the first Home Depot store in Atlanta. Investment banker Ken Langone helped secure the financing to get the company started.
In 1981, Home Depot was listed on the NASDAQ exchange for $12 a share. Today, the company's shares are worth $395, equating to a market cap of about $392 billion, reported NBC.
Marcus was the CEO of Home Depot from 1978 to 1997. He served as the company’s chairman until his retirement in 2002. According to Forbes, Marcus had a net worth of about $11 billion at the time of his death.
Marcus was well known for his philanthropy. He created a foundation through which he gave to a variety of causes and projects focused on medicine and health care, Jewish and Israeli issues, free enterprise and veterans support and community efforts.
He was also a major contributor to philanthropic efforts in the Home Depot’s home town of Atlanta. He and wife donated $250 million to help build the Georgia Aquarium, one of the largest aquariums in the world and a nonprofit venture for conservation and research.
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, as well as a grant contribution to the Construction Education Foundation of Georgia.
Marcus was also a major GOP donor.
To read Home Depot's full statement on Marcus, click here.