The Home Depot is deeply saddened by the passing of our beloved founder, Bernard Marcus. To us, he was simply “Bernie.”
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.
More than anything, he deeply believed in the company’s core values, particularly that of giving back. He never lost sight of his humble roots, using his success not for fame or fortune but to generously help others. In business and in charity, Bernie was unparalleled in generosity and goodwill.
Born to be an entrepreneur
The son of Russian Jewish immigrants, Bernie was born in 1929 and grew up in a tenement in Newark, New Jersey. He dreamed of becoming a doctor. When his family couldn't afford medical school, he enrolled in pharmacy school and received a degree from Rutgers University. Bernie said he'd often cut classes to sell Amana freezers door-to-door.
After college, he worked his way up the corporate ladder at manufacturing conglomerate O’Dell’s and retail chain Vornado, Inc. By 1972, Bernie was the Chairman of the Board and President of Handy Dan Improvement Centers, Inc., a chain that was part of the Daylin conglomerate. While working for Daylin, Bernie formed a friendship with Arthur Blank that would last for the rest of his life.
The watershed moment in Bernie’s career came when he was fired from Handy Dan in April 1978, along with Arthur and Ron Brill. Bernie was faced with the prospect of reinventing himself at 49. He 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. Investment banker Ken Langone helped secure the financing to get The Home Depot started.
The following year, the first Home Depot stores opened in Atlanta, beginning a remarkable journey. From those first stores in 1979, Bernie and his fellow founders grew a business that created jobs worldwide — eventually employing more than 500,000 associates.
Giving back
Giving back was part of Bernie’s upbringing. “My mother taught me to be generous. She believed that the more you give, the more you get.”
Bernie would practice the Jewish tradition of tzedakah throughout his life. In his book Kick Up Some Dust: Lessons on Thinking Big, Giving Back and Doing It Yourself, he writes, “I was able to do things my parents could only dream about... and have focused on helping those I will never meet.”
Over the years he had an enormous influence on healthcare in Atlanta. With his wife Billi, Bernie started The Marcus Institute, which today is the Marcus Autism Center, a not-for-profit subsidiary of Children's Healthcare of Atlanta that treats more than 5,500 children with autism and related disorders a year.
Bernie also helped create Project Share in conjunction with The Shepherd Center in Atlanta, renowned for the treatment of brain and spinal injuries. To ensure that members of the military and veterans get diagnosed and cared for without financial constraint, The Marcus Foundation underwrote the housing, transportation and care costs of any military personnel with brain or spinal injuries who are sent to Shepherd. Bernie and Billi were inducted into the National Spinal Cord Injury Association’s Hall of Fame for their tireless efforts in this area.
In 1999, Bernie, Arthur and Ken started The Homer Fund to take care of Home Depot associates who suffer unexpected hardships. Contributions from associates to The Homer Fund perfectly demonstrate our value of Taking Care of Our People. Since its founding, The Homer Fund has helped more than 194,000 associates.
Bernie and Billi joined The Giving Pledge in 2010, a commitment to give away most of their money during their lifetime.
“To make quarterly profit is one thing, but changing just one life is so much better,” Bernie wrote in a letter to Warren Buffett.
Later, Bernie told the Atlanta Journal Constitution, “I want to live to be 100 because I want to be in a position to give it away to those things that I really believe in.”
Bernie and Billi also built the Georgia Aquarium, one of the largest aquariums in the world. The aquarium is a nonprofit venture for conservation and research. They dedicated it to the people of Georgia and the associates, customers and shareholders of The Home Depot, as a way of saying thank you for making The Home Depot a success.
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.
Bernie’s philanthropic work will be continued by The Marcus Foundation, with a focus on Jewish causes, children, medical research, free enterprise and the community. His commitment to excellent customer service, entrepreneurial spirit, giving back and taking care of our people lives on with the associates of The Home Depot. To learn more about the foundation you can click on the link here: marcusfoundation.org.
