Americans everywhere know the brand he created. But not enough people know the man behind the brand that revolutionized how Americans buy almost everything we need to remodel, repair or take care of our most precious physical asset and a fundamental part of what constitutes the American dream: our homes.
Bernie Marcus, the co-founder of Home Depot, died Monday at the age of 95. But it’s how he lived that’s worth celebrating. Marcus wasn’t just one of America’s great entrepreneurs and philanthropists. He was a fierce advocate for free enterprise and the American dream because his life story embodied both.
His mother and father were born in Russia but fled to America because of an outbreak of organized massacres of Jews in the late 19th and early 20th centuries in Eastern Europe and Russia, not much different from the one the world witnessed in Israel’s Negev Desert last October. Like millions of immigrants before and after, his parents didn’t come here to change America. They came here to have America change them.
To say his life started humbly would be an understatement. Marcus was born in 1929, months before the Great Depression, and his family lived in a fourth-floor walk-up tenement in Newark, New Jersey. “My parents did not speak a word of English and we were poorer than poor, but what we did have was a great family and a lot of love in the family.”
Marcus described his cabinetmaker father as being “strong as an ox, and a great craftsman, but a terrible businessman” in his memoir, Kick Up Some Dust: Lessons on Thinking Big, Giving Back, and Doing It Yourself. It was his mother, Sarah, who inspired Marcus’ “do it yourself” attitude. Despite suffering from debilitating rheumatoid arthritis, she infused in him her relentless optimism and can-do spirit.
Marcus’ love of country came from his mom, too. “The day she got her citizenship, she cried like a baby,” Marcus told the Atlanta Jewish Times. “She taught me to love this country and take advantage of the benefits this country offered me.”
It was from his mom that he learned about generosity too. He had no money growing up—5 spare cents was a big deal—and that nickel was sometimes spent on ice cream. But just as often, his mother would say, “We can’t have the ice cream today, we’re planting a tree in Israel,” and the nickel would be sent off, if not to Israel then to one charitable cause or another. The Jewish obligation to give, tzedakah, was the source of her compassion. And his.
Marcus credited his Jewish heritage for much of his success. “Over 2,000 years, Jews have been oppressed in every society we’ve belonged,” he wrote. “Jews were able, through our wits, intelligence, brightness, to succeed in almost every instance, no matter what civilization it was.”
Marcus would have his share of adversity. After graduating from Rutgers University with a pharmacy degree, he worked in various retail companies, eventually taking the helm at Handy Dan Home Improvement in California, where, in 1978, he was fired at the age of 49. It turned out to be the best thing that ever happened to him. He rebounded quickly, starting a new venture with his partners Arthur Blank and Ken Langone. Those three men did what entrepreneurs do best: solve problems.
Before Home Depot, weekend home improvement types spent lots of time shuffling between stores to get lumber, plumbing and paint supplies. It wasn’t just inconvenient; it was expensive because many of those stores worked through middlemen, which drove costs up for customers. Why not put everything under one roof, cut out the middlemen and go direct to the manufacturers? And make home improvement easier, better and more affordable? Thus, Home Depot was born.
But the founders didn’t stop there. Home Depot also demystified the mechanics of plumbing, electrical wiring and construction, staffing stores with knowledgeable salespeople who could answer shoppers’ questions and guide them to the proper equipment. The stores offered free remodeling and repair clinics too. Indeed, Home Depot helped drive the DIY revolution, with HGTV and stars like Chip and Joanna Gaines helping millions of working-class families improve on their own American dreams.
But there’s more to the story. Go to any Home Depot store at 6 a.m. and you’ll see small contractors lining up for lumber and supplies of all kinds. The stores serve as their local warehouse, allowing them to compete with bigger builders by leveling the supply chain playing field.
In addition, Home Depot helped its vendors—its business partners—grow into bigger companies too. Home Depot made their American dream happen.
It’s a heck of a story, what Marcus and his partners accomplished. Their first two stores opened in Atlanta in 1979, and by the end of 2023 there were 2,300 across North America, with over 460,000 employees and sales of $153 billion. And Home Depot is considered one of the best places to work in the country.
But there’s even more to this remarkable story. Since its 1981 public offering, an investment in HD is up a staggering 1,145,199 percent. And HD happens to be one of the most widely owned stocks in America. Pension funds of teachers, firemen, autoworkers, truckers and nurses, as well as the 401(k)’s of hardworking Americans across the country, include HD stock in their retirement portfolios.
Those millions of working-class shareholders are rooting for Home Depot to continue its outstanding record of serving customers. Because, Marcus would always say, that is what drives shareholder value in America: service.
After he retired in 2002, Marcus and his bride, Billi, worked to give not some but most of their wealth away, over $2.7 billion and counting. It’s gone to everything from building the world’s greatest aquarium (in Atlanta) to Alzheimer’s and autism research, from helping veterans to the family’s deep love of Israel.
Marcus also started the nonprofit advocacy group Job Creators Network to fight for small-business owners across the country. “The free-market system is the biggest driver of wealth and prosperity the world has ever known,” he said in a speech last year. “And while some may say socialism is well-intentioned, the fact is it robs people of their independence, dignity and finances, leading to government dependence, suppression of ideas and lower standards of living.”
It’s a hard story not to admire. A man starts out with nothing. He faces setbacks but builds a great enterprise from scratch—and great wealth. And then spends the rest of his life giving that wealth away.
Marcus’s life is a rebuttal to Balzac’s quote, repeated in The Godfather, that behind every great fortune is a great crime, and it’s testimony that anyone in America can do anything. It starts with the right attitude—and the desire to make a difference in the world. And, as his memoir’s title implores, kick up some dust along the way.
“I’m 93,” Marcus told The Western Journal two years ago. “And I’m not stopping until the good Lord strikes me down.”
Marcus lived those words. To the end, he kept fighting for the things he loved: Israel, America, our system of free enterprise—and the American dream itself.
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