BM
Co-founder · c. 1939–2020
Bill Montgomery
Tea Party activist and retired marketing entrepreneur who heard an 18-year-old Kirk speak at Benedictine University in May 2012 and told him to skip college and organize full-time. Handled the incorporation and back office; secretary/treasurer until April 2020. Died July 28, 2020, age 80, after contracting COVID-19.
Role dispute
Kirk and the org did not always publicly credit him as co-founder — the emphasis, not the fact, is disputed
Cause of death flag
Contemporaneous reporting: COVID-related; a Jan 2026 Snopes piece revisits the definitiveness