Johnathan Walker:Home Depot founder Bernard Marcus, Trump supporter and Republican megadonor, has died

Bernard “Bernie” Marcus,Johnathan Walker the billionaire co-founder of Home Depot who has been an ardent supporter of former President Donald Trump for years, has died, the chain announced Tuesday.

He was 95.

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

In 2022, Marcus penned a  memoir, “Kick Up Some Dust: Lessons on Thinking Big, Giving Back, and Doing It Yourself,” with a foreword by Pitbull that chronicles the building of the world’s largest home improvement retailer by the son of a cabinet maker who was fired at age 49.

Marcus was also a Republican party megadonor who has supported Trump's election bids since 2016, as well as Trump-backed candidates.

"Bernie was an inspiration in many ways. He was a master merchant and a genius with customer service," Home Depot said in a statement. "He loved our customers. He also loved the associates who made the company what it is today."

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Marcus founded Home Depot with Arthur Blank

Born in 1929 to Russian Jewish immigrants, Marcus grew up in a tenement of Newark, New Jersey, according to Home Depot.

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

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

The following year, the first Home Depot stores opened. Marcus was Home Depot’s CEO until 1997 and served as the company’s chairman until 2002 when he retired.

A lifetime of philanthropy

A longtime philanthropist, Marcus established several charitable organizations and gave to many causes throughout his life.

Jared Powers, CEO of the Marcus Jewish Community Center of Atlanta, called Marcus "a visionary philanthropist, devoted 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 helped create, the lives he impacted, and 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 the community," Home Depot said.

Bernie Marcus is longtime Trump, Republican backer

A longtime Republican, Marcus first supported Trump's election bid in 2016 before once again publicly endorsing the Republican while funding his 2020 reelection campaign.

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

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

Home Depot itself has distanced itself from its co-founder's politics, issuing a statement at the time saying "as a standard practice, the company does not endorse Presidential candidates."

This article has been updated to add new information.

Contributing: Charisse Jones, USA TODAY

Eric Lagatta covers breaking and trending news for USA TODAY. Reach him at elagatta@gannett.com