Bernie Marcus, co-founder of The Home Depot, passed away at his Florida home on Monday at the age of 95.

Born to Russian-Jewish immigrants, Marcus exemplified the American Dream, rising from his childhood in a tenement in New Jersey to achieve great wealth through his business, according to a Home Depot press release.

At the time of his death, Marcus had an estimated net worth of around $6 billion. An official from the Jobs Creator Network, a nonprofit organization established by Marcus to support small businesses, reported that he died of natural causes. Marcus was also known as a major Republican donor and a supporter of Trump.

The Home Depot employs nearly 500,000 workers across thousands of stores throughout the United States.

“The entire Home Depot family is deeply saddened by the death of our co-founder Bernie Marcus. He’s left us with an invaluable legacy and the backbone of our company: our values and our culture. He will be tremendously missed,” the company said in a statement on social media.

The entire Home Depot family is deeply saddened by the death of our co-founder Bernie Marcus. He’s left us with an invaluable legacy and the backbone of our company: our values and our culture. He will be tremendously missed. https://t.co/qdgssDmBdX pic.twitter.com/yaA79cGlea

— The Home Depot (@HomeDepot) November 5, 2024

“He [Marcus] was a master merchant and a retail visionary. But even more importantly, he valued our associates, customers and communities above all,” a Home Depot spokesperson told the New York Post.

Marcus co-founded Home Depot after Handy Dan, a home improvement company, fired him when he was 49.

“Before Home Depot, it was all stores that if you wanted to buy electrical stuff, you went to an electrical store, you went to a hardware store, you went to a paint store. And we just took that and put that under one roof. Our concept took hold,” Marcus said in a video uploaded in his memory by the Jobs Creator Network.

In Memoriam: Bernie Marcus, 1929-2024, founder of JCN and co-founder of The Home Depot pic.twitter.com/8shtoCZYKe

— Job Creators Network (@JobCreatorsUSA) November 5, 2024

Marcus credited his success to capitalism and touted “the free market system” as the greatest engine of wealth creation in human history.

“While some may say that socialism is well-intentioned, the fact is it robs people of their independence, their dignity, and their finances,” he said. Socialism in turn translates to “government dependence, suppression of ideas and lower standards of living.”