Marcus was a major contributor to the US Republican Party and to former President Donald Trump in particular. He and his wife, Billi, donated $US7 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 $US1.8 million in support of Trump.
In 2019, Marcus’s pledge to support Trump’s reelection fuelled 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.”
Marcus co-founded Home Depot in 1978.Credit: Bloomberg
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.
In 1972, he joined Handy Dan Home Improvement Centres 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, emphasising 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.’”
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In 1991, Marcus co-founded the Israel Democracy Institute, a Jerusalem-based organisation that seeks “to bolster the values and institutions of Israel as a Jewish and democratic state.” He also set up the Marcus Autism Centre in Atlanta and financed the construction of the Georgia Aquarium with a $US250 million gift to the state in 2003.
Marcus and his wife had three children.
Bloomberg
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