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    • Home Depot founder Bernard Marcus, a longtime Trump supporter, has died
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    Home Depot founder Bernard Marcus, a longtime Trump supporter, has died

    Kathleen William Posted on

    Bernard “Bernie” Marcus, the billionaire co-founder of Home Depot and a longtime supporter of former President Donald Trump, has died, the chain announced Tuesday.

    He was 95.

    Marcus, previously listed by Forbes as Georgia's richest man, became rich after he and Arthur Blank opened the first two Home Depot stores in Atlanta in 1979. The orange-themed hardware store chain has since grown to 2,300 locations in North America with nearly half a million employees.

    In 2022, Marcus wrote his memoir, Kick Up Some Dust: Lessons on Thinking Big, Giving Back, and Doing It Yourself, with a foreword by Pitbull, detailing the creation of the world's largest home improvement retailer by the son of a cabinet manufacturer , who was released at the age of 49.

    Marcus was also a Republican Party megadonor, supporting Trump's election bids and Trump-endorsed candidates since 2016.

    “Bernie was an inspiration in many ways. He was a master dealer and a genius at customer service,” Home Depot said in a statement. “He loved our customers. He also loved the employees who made the company what it is today.”

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    Marcus founded Home Depot with Arthur Blank

    Marcus was born in 1929 to Russian Jewish immigrants and grew up in a rental home in Newark, New Jersey, according to Home Depot.

    After attending pharmacy school at Rutgers University, Marcus worked his way up the ladder at various chains before becoming chairman and president of the Handy Dan Improvement Centers in 1972, where he met Blank.

    For years, Marcus and Blank had a vision of a one-stop shop for do-it-yourself projects that was larger than a traditional hardware store. And after being fired by Handy Dan in 1978, they secured funding from investment banker Ken Langone to make it happen.

    The following year, the first Home Depot stores opened. Marcus was CEO of Home Depot until 1997 and served as the company's chairman until his retirement in 2002.

    A life of philanthropy

    A long-time philanthropist, Marcus founded several charities and donated to many causes throughout his life.

    Jared Powers, CEO of the Marcus Jewish Community Center of Atlanta, called Marcus “a visionary philanthropist, dedicated community leader and beloved friend to our agency and the entire Jewish community” in a statement to USA TODAY.

    “His legacy lives on in the spaces he created, in the lives he impacted and in the community he strengthened,” Powers said in the statement.

    Another nonprofit named in his honor, the Marcus Foundation, will continue his legacy “with a focus on Jewish causes, children, medical research, free enterprise and community,” Home Depot said.

    Bernie Marcus is a long-time Republican Trump supporter

    A long-time Republican, Marcus initially supported Trump's campaign in 2016 before publicly supporting the Republican again while also funding his re-election campaign in 2020.

    In 2019, social media users called for a boycott of Home Depot after it was revealed that Marcus would support Trump's bid for a second term in the White House. The move came after Marcus said in an interview with the Atlanta Journal-Constitution that while the then-president was “bad” at communication, his impact on employment and his aggressive stance toward China and Iran had been positive.

    Amid the backlash, Trump himself later came to Marcus' defense, calling him a “truly great, patriotic and charitable man,” now X, on Twitter.

    Home Depot itself has distanced itself from its co-founder's politics, issuing a statement at the time saying, “By default, the company does not support presidential candidates.”

    This article has been updated to add new information.

    Contributor: Charisse Jones, USA TODAY

    Eric Lagatta covers breaking and breaking news for USA TODAY. Reach him at [email protected]

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    Kathleen William
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