Bernie Marcus, Home Depot Founder, Dies: The Man W

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Bernie Marcus, the founder of Home Depot, has died at the age of 95, the company announced on Tuesday.

The man who helped America build itself by providing a one-stop-shop for building materials and household goods was a revered figure in the business community, a frequent commentator on cable news, and a strong supporter of Donald Trump’s campaigns for president. “He was a master merchant and a genius with customer service,” the company said.

Marcus was born into an immigrant Jewish family, and attended pharmacy school at Rutgers University. He entered the business world — and, like many, his career was launched when he was fired from his corporate job. At the age of 49, he formed a partnership with friends Arthur Blank and Ron Brill, and found funding from investor Ken Langone, for a one-stop shop for do-it-yourselfers.” He opened the first Home Depot in Atlanta, and it was a major success.

Home Depot provided more than a convenience: it also created its own miniature economy. It allowed millions of people to start their own contracting businesses. It also became a gathering place for tradesmen looking for work as day laborers — a sign of the country’s growing immigrant population, both legal and illegal. During the coronavirus pandemic, when many other retail stores were closed, Home Depot was also a social lifeline for many Americans.

Marcus, as the company’s obituary noted, gave extremely generously to charity, observing the Jewish tradition of tzedakah, which is translated as “charity” but is more closely related to the word tzedek, for “righteousness.” Marcus, whose net worth was estimated at $11 billion, donated $250 million to build Atlanta’s aquarium, and said in 2019 that he planned to donate the rest of his wealth to charity — as well as to the cause of reelecting Donald Trump.

In 2016, when support for Trump was still deeply controversial, Marcus penned an op-ed in RealClearPolitics explaining his reasoning: “I genuinely believe that if we to started The Home Depot today, we would fail because of the hurdles government, especially the current administration, places in front of small business owners,” he wrote. Marcus noted that he supported Trump despite having backed former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush in the GOP primary.

Marcus backed Trump throughout his presidency, criticizing Democrats who had rejected Trump’s pro-growth tax reforms in 2017. “You’ve got to use your brains,” he said, dismissing those who claimed that Trump’s tax cuts had not produced rapid growth after just a few months. “[Corporations] are going to do smart things. They are going to make smart moves, and that will take a period of time, just like the small businesses.” Time proved his predictions right.

During the pandemic, Marcus praised Trump’s decentralized response, which allowed states to experiment with their own policies. He endorsed Trump for reelection in a Fox News op-ed, adding: “While Democrats try to blame Trump for the roughly 220,000 disease victims, far more would have perished if Joe Biden were in office.” Once again, he was right: more Americans died from COVID under President Biden, even with the benefit of coronavirus vaccines.

Marcus backed Trump again in 2024, writing in RealClearPolitics: “For the first time in my 94 years on earth, I fear for the future of our democracy. … The world has also changed since 2020. It is much less safe … the different factions of the Republican Party must unite behind Trump.”

It is tragic, but perhaps poetic, that Marcus’s passing should have come on Election Day 2024, as Americans headed to the polls, to save the country Bernie Marcus helped them build.

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