Bernard Marcus - Biography

Bernard "Bernie" Marcus (born 1929 in Newark, New Jersey) is an American pharmacist and retail entrepreneur.

He was born to Jewish-Russian immigrant parents in Newark, New Jersey. He grew up in a tenement and wanted to become a doctor. He couldn’t afford the tuition, so he worked for his father as a cabinet maker through Rutgers University to earn a pharmacy degree. While there he joined the Alpha Epsilon Pi fraternity. He was also a brother of Alpha Kappa Psi Business Fraternity.

Later, he worked at a drugstore as a pharmacist but became more interested in the business and retailing part of the business. He worked at a cosmetics company and various other retail jobs, eventually reaching a position as a top executive with Handy Dan Improvement Centers, a Los Angeles-based chain of home improvement stores. In 1978, after a disagreement with his boss at Handy Dan, he and Home Depot co-founder Arthur Blank were both fired.

Together, with the help of New York investment banker Ken Langone who assembled a group of investors and business partner Arthur Blank, they launched the highly successful home-improvement retailer The Home Depot in 1979. The store revolutionized the home improvement business with its warehouse concept and the three became billionaires as a result. He was the company's first CEO for 19 years and served as chairman of the board until his retirement in 2002.

Mr. Marcus was inducted into the Junior Achievement U.S. Business Hall of Fame in 2006.

On October 17, 2008, Marcus participated in a conference call urging clients to send "large contributions" to groups working against the Employee Free Choice Act (EFCA), as well as to vulnerable Senate Republicans, who could help block passage of the bill. Over the course of an hour, Marcus and Rick Berman, an aggressive EFCA opponent, framed the legislation as an existential threat to American capitalism, or worse.

"This is the demise of a civilization," said Marcus. "This is how a civilization disappears. I am sitting here as an elder statesman and I'm watching this happen and I don't believe it." ..."If a retailer has not gotten involved in this, if he has not spent money on this election, if he has not sent money to Norm Coleman and all these other guys, they should be shot. They should be thrown out of their goddamn jobs," Marcus declared.

Philanthropy

Marcus almost single-handedly funded and launched the new Georgia Aquarium that opened in downtown Atlanta, Georgia in 2005. Based mostly on the US$250M million donation for the Aquarium, Marcus and his wife, Billi, were listed among the top charitable donors in the country by The Chronicle of Philanthropy in 2005.

Bernie Marcus also funded and founded The Marcus Institute, a nationally recognized center of excellence for the provision of comprehensive services for children and adolescents with developmental disabilities. In May 2005, Marcus was awarded the Others Award by the Salvation Army, its highest honor.

Marcus is currently chairman of the Marcus Foundation, whose focuses include children, medical research, free enterprise, Jewish causes and the community.

Bernie is on the Board of Directors and an active volunteer for the Shepherd Center. He's particularly involved in providing care for war veterans with traumatic brain injury.