In 1978, he came up with the idea of a warehouse-style store that would appeal to the do-it-yourself homeowner. With a partner’s help it became the world’s largest home-improvement retailer.

After getting fired together from a hardware business in the 1970s, Bernard Marcus and Arthur Blank set out to build their own retail chain. They started with a few stores in Atlanta and built Home Depot into a national powerhouse that made them both billionaires.