Home Depot co-founder Bernard "Bernie" Marcus, a Republican megadonor backing Donald Trump, has passed away at the age of 95, the company announced Tuesday.
"The entire Home Depot family is deeply saddened by the death of our co-founder Bernie Marcus," a Home Depot spokesperson said in an official statement. "He was a master merchant and a retail visionary. But even more importantly, he valued our associates, customers and communities above all."
Marcus was born in 1929 in Newark, New Jersey to Russian Jewish immigrants and earned a degree in merchandising and marketing from Rutgers University. Marcus founded the Home Depot in 1978 with Arthur Blank, Ron Brill, and Ken Langone.
Marcus and Blank met while working at Handy Dan Home Improvement, a chain of retailers in California. After being let go, they decided to start a new chain of hardware stores that was bigger and with a more helpful staff than the traditional stores at the time. The concept turned into a household name with 2,300 locations and a market valuation of close to $400 billion.
Marcus was Home Depot's CEO until 1997 and served as chairman until he retired in 2022. Marcus was a well-known philanthropist in Atlanta, where the company opened its first stores. He and his wife Billi started the Marcus Autism Center at Emory, among other health initiatives and gave $250 million to help fund the Georgia Aquarium.
"He was a master merchant and a retail visionary. But even more importantly, he valued our associates, customers and communities above all," the company's statement continued. "He's left us with an invaluable legacy and the backbone of our company: our values."
Marcus was a prominent Republican donor later in life and announced his support for Trump's third run for the White House in November of 2023 despite his misgivings about some of Trump's social media antics.
"I'm struggling with it now," Marcus told the New York Post in 2023, "I think [Trump] has the policies, if he would just follow the script and do what he has to do."
Ultimately, Marcus put his full support behind Trump writing in a RealClear Politics column that he was the only candidate to protect the U.S. southern border, support Israel, return America's cities to law and order, and return freedom to businesses.
"He is the best person to take on and dismantle the administrative state that is strangling America," Marcus wrote.
James Morley III ✉
James Morley III is a writer with more than two decades of experience in entertainment, travel, technology, and science and nature.
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