Bernard Marcus

{ "bio": [ "Bernie Marcus and Arthur Blank cofounded Home Depot in 1978 after being fired from their jobs at a regional hardware store.", "In 1981, Marcus, Blank and early investor Ken Langone took Home Depot public. All three men are now billionaires.", "Marcus, who signed the Giving Pledge with his wife in 2010, has given away nearly $2 billion to education, hospitals and Jewish causes.", "He threw a party for his 90th birthday in 2019 and raised $117 million for his favorite nonprofits. President Trump sent a personal note, too.", "Marcus was born to Russian immigrant parents, who sought the \"golden land\" in the U.S. and ended up in a fourth-floor walk-up tenement in N.J." ], "about": [ "In the early days of Home Depot no one came into the store, so Marcus and Blank sent their kids out into the streets to hand $1 bills to anyone willing to walk in.", "Initially, Marcus wanted to be a doctor but couldn't afford Harvard Medical School, so he instead studied pharmaceuticals at Rutgers in his native N.J." ] }