Bernard Marcus, A Billionaire Behind Home Depot, Dies At 95

(Bloomberg) -- Bernard Marcus, the former pharmacist who became a billionaire by co-founding Home Depot Inc., the world’s largest home-improvement retailer, has died. He was 95.

The company announced Marcus’s death on its website, calling him “a master merchant and a genius with customer service” who was “unparalleled in generosity and goodwill.” He died on Monday at his home in Boca Raton, Florida, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported, citing Jay Kaiman, president of Marcus’s charitable foundation.

With co-founder Arthur Blank and the financial help of investment banker Kenneth Langone, Marcus established Atlanta-based Home Depot in 1978 and set the standard for selling to the do-it-yourself crowd, focusing on service, marked-down prices and how-to lessons. 

Marcus served 19 years as Home Depot’s first chief executive officer and was chairman of the board from 1978 until his retirement in 2002. Blank retired from the company in 2001 after serving as president, CEO and co-chairman.

“We believed from the start that if we brought the customer quality merchandise at the right price and offered excellent service, we could change retailing in the US,” Marcus said for a 2008 Entrepreneur magazine article. “Today, we are the model of what retailing should be.”

Marcus had a net worth of $7.4 billion, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index.

The two founders, Marcus and Blank, turned longtime store employees into millionaires through stock options, which were introduced as part of their philosophy of treating co-workers well to gain their loyalty. The company has about 475,000 employees, known as associates, at about 2,300 stores, 

Marcus was a major contributor to the US Republican Party and to former President Donald Trump in particular. He and his wife, Billi, donated $7 million to committees supporting Trump’s successful 2016 campaign and more than that to Republicans in the 2018 midterm elections. 

This election cycle, as of September, Marcus had given more than $1.8 million in support of Trump.

In 2019, Marcus’s pledge to support Trump’s reelection fueled calls to boycott Home Depot, and Trump defended Marcus as “a truly great, patriotic and charitable man.” When boycott calls were renewed in 2020, Home Depot responded that Marcus had retired “nearly 20 years ago and does not speak on behalf of the company.”

Bernard Marcus was born on May 12, 1929, in Newark, New Jersey, to Russian immigrant parents. His father was a cabinet maker. 

Growing up in a poor family and working from age 13, he aimed to become a doctor, then switched to pharmaceutical studies and graduated from Rutgers University in 1954.

After working briefly for a New Jersey-based pharmacy business, he managed several departments at discount chain retailer Two Guys and then became president at manufacturing group Odell Inc. 

In 1972, he joined Handy Dan Home Improvement Centers Inc., a Los Angeles-based chain, and became its CEO. Blank was the company’s chief financial officer. 

Jointly fired in 1978 by the head of Handy Dan’s parent company, Marcus and Blank joined forces to form Home Depot, emphasizing customer service.

“If ever I saw an associate point a customer toward what they needed three aisles over, I would threaten to bite their finger,” Marcus wrote in Built From Scratch, a joint 1999 memoir written with Blank and Bob Andelman. “I would say, ‘Don’t ever let me see you point. You take the customer by the hand, and you bring them right where they need to be and you help them.’”

In 1991, Marcus co-founded the Israel Democracy Institute, a Jerusalem-based organization that seeks “to bolster the values and institutions of Israel as a Jewish and democratic state.” He also set up the Marcus Autism Center in Atlanta and financed the construction of the Georgia Aquarium with a $250 million gift to the state in 2003.

Marcus and his wife had three children.