Bernie Marcus

Cofounded Home Depot with partner Arthur Blank after getting fired from now defunct Handy Dan; took public 3 years later. Do-it-yourself notion lured contractors, husbands with Honey-Do lists. Hung up tool belt 2002, focused on philanthropy. Donated $250 million to build the Georgia Aquarium 2001. Bernie Marcus died on Monday November 4 2024 in Boca Raton, Fla. He was 95. Marcus was born in Newark on May 12, 1929, to Sara and Joe Marcus, Jewish immigrants from Russia. Marcus earned money for college as a busboy at a Catskills hotel. During his final year at Rutgers University in New Jersey, he believed he had received a scholarship to Harvard Medical School. He was shocked when he was told he would need to come up with $10,000 in order to enter Harvard, which had a quota on Jews at its medical school. In despair and unable to afford the tuition, Mr. Marcus quit college and spent a year in Florida. His mother persuaded him to return to Rutgers, where he earned a degree in pharmacy. He joined the Handy Dan chain in 1968 and established an immediate rapport with Mr. Blank. Mr. Marcus was the outgoing visionary with comedic timing; Mr. Blank was the operations guru who made things work behind the scenes. By 1972, Mr. Marcus was the company’s president and chairman. That year he divorced his wife, Ruth (Schwartz) Marcus (who became Ruth Marcus Rados when she remarried). In 1973, he married Billi Morris. She survives him, as do a son, Frederick, from his first marriage; a stepson, Michael A. Morris; and seven grandchildren. His daughter, Susanne Marcus Collins, died in 2021.