Biography
Bill Montgomery was a co-founder of Turning Point USA. He died on 28 July 2020, aged 80, of COVID-19.
Turning Point USA
Turning Point USA describes Montgomery as its “first believer and senior adviser” — a formulation the organization itself used after his death, and one that places him alongside Charlie Kirk, its other co-founder and its president, without assigning him an executive role. On his death Kirk posted a tribute, and the organization issued a statement that “Bill’s steadfast devotion to his family, his country, and the organization he helped create have left a permanent mark on the entire Turning Point USA community, and by extension an entire generation of students.”
Turning Point USA Inc. is a 501(c)(3) organization that has been tax-exempt since July 2014 and has Form 990 filings on record from the tax year ending June 2013.
Relevance to This Site
Montgomery is one of the people this site covers who had no public digital presence of their own. He appears here because the organization he helped start became one of the largest online political operations aimed at students, and because the founding of that organization by an older activist and a teenager is a documented feature of how it began — not because of anything he himself published or broadcast.
What Is Not Established Here
The previous version of this page carried a detailed biography that the citation audit could source none of, and it has been removed: his birth year; a career in marketing and in newspaper publishing; a restaurant called The Strand Cafe in the Chicago suburbs; retirement followed by grassroots organizing in the early 2010s; the account of meeting Charlie Kirk in 2012 after hearing him speak and encouraging him to skip college; the claim that he handled Turning Point USA’s founding paperwork and administration; and the claim that he served on its board as secretary and treasurer until spring 2019. Turning Point USA’s own description of him is “first believer and senior adviser”, which is what the page now says. The 2012 founding date is also unsourced here — the earliest first-party marker available is the organization’s July 2014 IRS exemption and its Form 990 filings from the tax year ending June 2013.
Sources
- 01.
DeMarche, E. (2020). Bill Montgomery, co-founder of Turning Point USA, dies. Report of 30 July 2020. Source for Montgomery's death from COVID-19 at the age of 80; for his role as co-founder of Turning Point USA and, in the organization's own words, its 'first believer and senior adviser'; for Charlie Kirk being the organization's other co-founder and president; for Kirk's posted tribute; for the organization's statement that 'Bill's steadfast devotion to his family, his country, and the organization he helped create have left a permanent mark on the entire Turning Point USA community, and by extension an entire generation of students'; and for his surviving family.
- 02.
Internal Revenue Service, via ProPublica Nonprofit Explorer. Turning Point USA Inc. — IRS Form 990 filings (EIN 80-0835023). Turning Point USA Inc. is a 501(c)(3) organization, tax-exempt since July 2014, with Form 990 filings on record from the tax year ending June 2013 onward. The July 2014 exemption date is the earliest first-party marker for the organization's existence available through this source; it does not by itself establish a 2012 founding.