Marcus was born in 1929 in Newark, New Jersey.
He was the youngest of four siblings, and they and his Russian Jewish immigrant parents lived in a tenement when he was growing up.
“My parents, an immigrant couple struggling to make ends meet in Newark, taught me that generosity was a universal imperative no matter one’s station in life,” he told the Atlanta Business Chronicle. “You gave – if not from your wallet then your time and talent. It’s why I was serving on boards of nonprofits when I couldn’t find two nickels to rub together.”
Marcus dreamed of becoming a doctor, but ended enrolled in a pharmacy program at Rutgers University in New Jersey instead.
Marcus said he would earn extra money during those years by selling freezers door-to-door, graduating in 1954.
After college, he worked several manufacturing and retail jobs, rising to corporate leadership at Handy Dan Home Improvement, where he met Arthur Blank.
The now-defunct Los Angeles-based company fired Marcus, then the CEO, and Blank during a corporate restructuring in 1978. The pair would remain lifelong friends, even as their lives and opinions diverged.
After the two were fired, Marcus and Blank founded Home Depot in 1978, with Marcus serving as the company’s first CEO.
The first two Home Depot stores opened in the metro Atlanta area in 1979 and were the first one-stop-shops for DIY home improvement.
Now, more than 45 years after its founding, Home Depot has more than 2,300 stores in North America.
The company now employs over 465,000 workers and made nearly $153 billion last year, making it the 23rd largest US firm by revenue, and nearly twice the size of its nearest home improvement rival, Lowe’s.
Marcus and his wife Billi were married for more than 45 years.
The couple gave more than $2 billion to more than 400 nonprofits, according to the Atlanta Jewish Times.
Their $250 million donation helped open the Georgia Aquarium in Atlanta in 2005.
They also joined Warren Buffet’s Giving Pledge in 2010, committing to donate all of their wealth during their lifetime.
Marcus also ramped up his donations to Republican politicians, donating $64 million to political causes over the years.
Marcus was a prominent supporter of former President Donald Trump, and gave to Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, and Sen. John McCain, according to data from the Federal Election Commission.
Marcus sparked a boycott of Home Depot in July 2019 after telling the Atlanta Journal-Constitution that he would once again financially support the president in 2020.
Marcus said that while he didn’t agree with Trump’s every move, the president still “produced more than anybody else.”
Marcus again sparked controversy in 2022, saying that “nobody works, nobody gives a damn” anymore because of “socialism.”
“I’m worried about capitalism,” he told the Financial Times. “Capitalism is the basis of Home Depot [and] millions of people have earned this success and had success.”
“Nobody works, nobody gives a damn,” he said. “‘Just give it to me. Send me money. I don’t want to work — I’m too lazy, I’m too fat, I’m too stupid.'”
In January 2024, he decried “the woke generation,” saying their “laziness” makes them bad business leaders.
“I certainly don’t want to see the woke generation coming up, especially the leaders,” he said, following the World Economic Forum’s annual meeting in Davos.
“They’re recommending spending more money on climate control when we don’t have it. We’ve already overspent. And if anything, climate control has caused most of the problems we have today,” he added.
Marcus died at his home in Boca Raton, Florida, on November 4 at the age of 95.
He leaves behind a fortune worth roughly $7.5 billion, according to Bloomberg.
“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,” he told the Atlanta Journal Constitution.
Editor’s note: Taylor Nicole Rogers and Ben Tobin contributed to previous versions of this story.
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