Departures: Home Depot philanthropist dies at 95

Bernard Marcus

The son of poor immigrants who became a co-founder of the Home Depot, Marcus died Nov. 4. He was 95. Marcus made his mark in business in the 1970s, rising to become CEO of Handy Dan, a powerhouse home-improvement store at the time. After his 1978 ousting, he founded the Home Depot with another Handy Dan alumnus, Arthur Blank. Marcus served for nearly two decades as the founding CEO of the wildly successful company. He used his vast fortune from the Home Depot to fund civic projects and to become a Republican megadonor. He gave about $250 million to build the Georgia Aquarium that opened in 2005, and he contributed millions to Trump-aligned election causes.

Quincy Jones

A 28-time Grammy winner who helped define the sound of popular music in America for decades, Jones died Nov. 3 at age 91. Jones began his professional life in music as a touring jazz trumpeter and began producing his own albums in the 1950s. By 1962, he composed and released “Soul Bossa Nova”—a tune that became iconic for its use in Austin Powers movies decades later. In the 1960s, he worked with Count Basie and Frank Sinatra. His electric blues track “The Streetbeater” became the theme music for television’s Sanford and Son. Jones reached his height in the late 1970s and 1980s producing and arranging a trio of iconic Michael Jackson albums, including Thriller, the best-selling album of all time.

Gustavo Gutiérrez

A Peruvian priest acclaimed as the father of liberation theology, Gutiérrez died Oct. 22. He was 96. Ordained as a Catholic priest in 1959, he published his seminal work A Theology of Liberation in 1971. The book blended Gutiérrez’s understandings of Catholic social teaching and Marxist economic philosophy into a powerful left-wing theology that today arguably forms a moral foundation for many left-wing economic ideas. Gutiérrez insisted the poverty of Latin America demanded social ­justice reform, but Vatican officials would later criticize the Peruvian theologian for adopting Marxist ideas. Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger (later Pope Benedict XVI) issued warnings against Gutiérrez’s theology in 1984 and 1986.

Fernando Valenzuela

A major league baseball sensation who became an instant star in his rookie season with the Los Angeles Dodgers in 1981, Valenzuela died Oct. 22. He was 63. The Dodgers discovered Valenzuela toiling in the Mexican leagues and quickly recruited the left-handed pitcher with an odd windup. Employing an old-­fashioned screwball—an off-speed pitch that tailed away from right-handed batters—Valenzuela dazzled the majors at age 20. He won his first eight games in 1981 en route to a debut season in which he won Rookie of the Year and the National League Cy Young Award. “Fernandomania” made him a national media icon. Valenzuela was enshrined in the Mexican Professional Baseball Hall of Fame in 2014.

Richard A. Cash

A public health researcher who played a major role in a consequential life-saving therapy, Cash died Oct. 22. He was 83. Freshly minted from New York University School of Medicine, Cash moved in 1967 to present-day Bangladesh, where he worked to quell deadly cholera infections. There, Cash and other doctors searched for the most effective method to rehydrate cholera patients suffering from severe diarrhea. Eventually the team developed an oral rehydration therapy combining salt, sugar, and potable water that was easy to administer and proved effective at keeping people alive. The technique became standard practice and, according to the World Health Organization, has saved more than 50 million lives.