Billionaire Home Depot cofounder Bernie Marcus’ foundation donates nearly $30 million toward stem cell research for heart attacks

Before Bernie Marcus cofounded the now-$343 billion home improvement chain Home Depot, he dreamed of becoming a doctor.

Marcus, who died in November 2024 at age 95, enrolled in pharmacy school when his family couldn’t afford to send him to medical school. He would often skip classes to sell Amana freezers door-to-door, according to a memoir published by Home Depot, but he still received his degree from Rutgers University. 

After college, he worked his way up through various leadership positions at manufacturing companies, and had a career-defining moment in 1978 when he was fired from a now-defunct home improvement store called Handy Dan. That’s when he decided to reinvent himself and cofounded Home Depot. He was worth an estimated $11 billion when he died.

Marcus’ legacy lives on, and his philanthropic foundation now nods to one of his original passions: medicine.

The Marcus Foundation, established in 1989 by Bernie and his wife, Billi, donated $28.7........

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