Bernard Marcus, cofounder of The Home Depot and billionaire Republican megadonor, has died

Bernard “Bernie” Marcus, the billionaire Home Depot cofounder and a Republican megadonor, who in recent years became an outspoken supporter of former President Donald Trump, has died, according to an internal memo obtained by CNN. He was 95.

Bernard “Bernie” Marcus, the billionaire Home Depot cofounder and a Republican megadonor, who in recent years became an outspoken supporter of former President Donald Trump, has died, according to an internal memo obtained by CNN. He was 95. The Home Depot didn’t immediately respond to CNN’s request for comment. Marcus, who had a net worth of about $7.4 billion, according to Bloomberg’s Billionaire Index, gained his fortune from establishing The Home Depot with Arthur Blank in 1978. The duo grew the orange-clad hardware store into a retail behemoth that now has 2,300 stores and a stock market valuation of nearly $400 billion. Born in 1929 in Newark, New Jersey, to Russian Jewish immigrants, Marcus was the youngest of four siblings. He earned his degree in merchandising and marketing at Rutgers University and went into the retailing industry working for various chains. He met Blank when they worked at Handy Dan Home Improvement, a chain in California. They both were fired after new management came in, so the duo hatched a plan to start a new chain that was bigger than traditional hardware stores with better-trained staff. Then, the Home Depot was born. Marcus was Home Depot’s CEO until 1997 and served as the company’s chairman until his retirement in 2002.