A MARTÍNEZ, HOST:
Bernie Marcus was a man of second acts. Late in life, he co-founded Home Depot, which made him a billionaire. Then he became a philanthropist, a Republican super donor and a cheerleader for capitalism. Marcus died this week at the age of 95, NPR's Alina Selyukh looks back.
ALINA SELYUKH, BYLINE: When people tell the story of Bernie Marcus, the billionaire, they tend to start with the day he got fired at age 48. His joke was that he got hit in the rear end with a golden horseshoe because the firing pushed him to start Home Depot. But when Marcus himself told his story, it always started with his immigrant parents.
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BERNIE MARCUS: My mother, she always said to me, Bernie, you could be anything you want. This is America.
SELYUKH: He spoke on "The Learning Leader" podcast. His parents ran from antisemitism in Russia and Ukraine at the dawn of the 20th century. Marcus grew up in a tenement in New Jersey, barely scraping by, he told Fox Business.
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MARCUS: I remember walking down the street when I was 17 years old. I said, if I can have a house with a porch, I'll be a very happy person.
SELYUKH: He said his mother taught him never to dwell - dwelling is for losers. And his life shows the power of a plan B. When he couldn't get into medical school because of quotas limiting Jewish applicants, Marcus instead went to pharmacy school. This put him on a path to drug stores and retail, eventually joining a conglomerate, which put him in charge of a home improvement chain called Handy Dan. That company also introduced him to his future Home Depot co-founder, Arthur Blank.
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ARTHUR BLANK: Bernie is a combination of brother and a father figure and a rabbi. I mean, he's always considered himself to be a rabbi and...
SELYUKH: That's Blank on NPR's How I Built This in 2017.
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BLANK: So he would tell the same stories, and I would keep laughing at the same stories.
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BLANK: So I was - it was, like, a great partnership. It was like a marriage. It was like a very good marriage.
SELYUKH: Marcus and Blank got fired from Handy Dan together in 1978 in a corporate power struggle. Just over a year later, they opened the first two Home Depot stores in Atlanta. Another name they considered, by the way, was Bad Bernie's Buildall. The idea was to encourage people to DIY home projects.
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MARCUS: A store big enough to incorporate hardware, lumber, electrical at prices that were significantly lower.
SELYUKH: Marcus spoke with the Best Practice Institute.
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MARCUS: And then we hired professional people, like carpenters, like plumbers.
SELYUKH: In the early days, if a shopper didn't find something at Home Depot, Marcus, the CEO, would chase after them, get their address and hand deliver the missing item, which he would buy at a rival store, charging his shopper less than he'd paid.
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MARCUS: We actually changed America.
SELYUKH: By 1990, Home Depot was the largest home improvement chain. About a decade later, Marcus retired one of the richest people in America. He committed to giving away 90% of his wealth. He described how even in poverty, his parents had set aside money for charity. On Yahoo Finance, he urged business leaders to follow suit.
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MARCUS: The same brains that created their wealth can create good things for society.
SELYUKH: Marcus funded the massive Georgia Aquarium and a leading center for autism. He invested in Jewish organizations and groups working with veterans. He also became a conservative political mega-donor, spending millions to back Republican candidates, including Donald Trump.
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DONALD TRUMP: Where's Bernie Marcus? Where's Bernie? Bernie Marcus, founder of Home Depot.
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TRUMP: Go to Home Depot.
SELYUKH: Home Depot distanced itself from its co-founder as people on social media urged boycotts of the company whenever Marcus endorsed Trump. Over time, Marcus took up many Republican talking points, charging against critical race theory, fears of socialism, or, quote, "woke crap." But his central grievances were always regulation and big government, an evangelist for capitalism, like here on Fox.
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MARCUS: My family had no money, and look where I am today. It could only have happened in America under the system that we have of free enterprise and capitalism.
SELYUKH: Marcus said he wished to live to a hundred to oversee the spending of his net worth. At 93, he told one interviewer he planned to keep going until he got carried out in a wooden box. Hopefully, he said, made of wood from Home Depot.
Alina Selyukh, NPR News.
(SOUNDBITE OF RUN THE JEWELS SONG, "LIE, CHEAT, STEAL") Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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