After getting fired together from a hardware business in the 1970s, Bernard Marcus and Arthur Blank set out to build their own retail chain. Marcus, who retired as chairman in 2002, died at age 95, Home Depot announced Tuesday. The partners founded Home Depot in 1978, creating a chain of warehouse-style stores where forklifts tooted their horns as customers searched for paint, lumber, tools and other hardware stacked high on bare-concrete floors.