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 over $1 billion to education, hospitals, and Jewish causes. He threw a party for his 90th birthday in May 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. Marcus helped to open the Georgia Aquarium in November 2005.
