‘A true hero’: Community says goodbye to Home Depot co-founder, philanthropist Bernie Marcus

ATLANTA — Inside The Temple in midtown Atlanta Thursday, hundreds of friends and loved ones gathered to say goodbye and comfort the grieving family of Bernie Marcus, who died earlier this week at the age of 95.

“My mother will have a hole in her heart for the rest of her life. God Bless,” Marcus’ stepson Michael Morris told the mourners.

Channel 2′s Berndt Petersen was there as the community gathered to pay their respects.

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“If there was one word that could describe my father’s activity in the world is that he was uniquely a founder,” his son Fred Marcus said.

A group of the half-a-million people who work at The Home Depot, which Marcus co-founded, donned the familiar orange aprons and lined the driveway to The Temple.

Marcus and his longtime friend Arthur Blank founded The Home Depot in 1979.

“Bernie was a father figure, a brother to me, a mentor to me. In my eyes, a true hero in every sense of the word,” Blank said.

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Marcus was born and raised in New Jersey, served his country during the Korean War era, and came to Atlanta with a dream.

His enormous success in business led to enormous generosity that has changed lives.

He and his wife of more than 50 years, Billi, have given away more than $2 billion, which has been used to build medical treatment and research hospitals all over the city, constructed the Georgia Aquarium and supported the Jewish community.

“Indeed, we are all blessed for the privilege of sharing in his life. Woe onto us, for our friend Bernie Marcus can never be replaced. Amen,” Rabbi Peter Berg told mourners.

Marcus once said his mother taught him to always be generous and the proof that he followed those words is all over the city of Atlanta.

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