Hennessy's View

Bill Hennessy lives a varied life. (Maybe it’s his attention span.) He grew up in St. Louis, Missouri. He left a theatre scholarship in 1984 to join the U.S. Navy where he spent nine years on active duty in the submarine force. He’s been an activist, a writer, a small business owner, a software architect, and a new media marketing director. But his activism and writing are what most people want to know about.

Activist

Bill’s activism started in 1982. He recruited a group of his fellow Fontbonne students to hold a counter protest to a school-sponsored benefit for the SANE/Freeze campaign. Because of free beer at Bill’s event, he outdrew the official demonstration.

That same year, Bill worked on Senator John Danforth’s re-election campaign. Bill and a few other students would attend candidate debates and question the opponent, Harriet Woods, or her representative. Mercilessly.

On February 20, 2009, Bill’s activism became a permanent fixture in his life. He and a St. Louis radio host, Dana Loesch, announced their Tea Party on the steps of the Gateway Arch in St. Louis. Hoping for 100 people, Bill and Dana saw over 1,000 people flood the sloping stairs to hear short speeches, sing God Bless America, and dump tea leaves into the Mississippi River. The St. Louis Tea Party was born.

Since then, Bill has organized dozens of events and promoted hundreds. St. Louis has been at the epicenter of the tea party movement. It was here that SEIU employees beat Kenneth Gladney in August 2009. It was here that tea partyers dressed as SEIU members to protest Barack Obama’s March visit. It was here that Congressman Russ Carnahan got caught making false accusations about a coffin.

Through the tea party and his writing, Bill has come to know Andrew Breitbart, Glenn Beck, Sarah Palin, Ambassador Tom Schweich, Roger Stone, and other national political celebrities. He has appeared on Neil Cavuto on Fox Business, Glenn Beck on Fox News, Larry Kudlow on CNBC, and numerous radio and local television programs.

Writer

Bill has written two books:

The Conservative Manifesto (1993) which sold about 15,000 copies in 1993 and 1994, and was a Conservative Book Club Featured Alternate Selction twice. Zen Conservatism (2009) asks readers—particularly conservatives—to take a breath and focus on the goal of liberty and limited government. The book offers tools and questions to help readers achieve their political goals by eliminating unnecessary distractions and unhelpful emotions.

Bill privately published a book of letters to his wife (then fiancée), Angela, entitled All My Love Forever which he plans to turn into a novel next year.

Bill wrote a column, “The Hennessy Report,” for Town Hall on CompuServe from 1993 to 1996. In 1999, he began the blog “Hennessy’s View,” from which he launched the St. Louis Tea Party in 2009. He currently edits stlouisteaparty.com. Bill is developing a business and happiness blog at billhennessy.net.

Speaker

Bill Hennessy is in demand as a speaker. In addition to speeches at major St. Louis Tea Party events, Bill has spoken to the Dallas Tea Party, American Majority’s Post-Party Summit in Kansas City, the Alton Tea Party, the Quincy Illinois Patriots on the Prairie Rally, the Jefferson County Tea Party, and dozens of small group gatherings.

Bill is refining his Zen Conservativsm workshop, which helps people apply the lessons of the book to their daily lives and to their organizations. Bill loves writing, but he loves being with people, too.

About

Bill lives with his wife, Angela, and their children near St. Louis, Missouri. Bill is Solution Innovation Director at Maritz Loyalty and Motivation in Fenton, Missouri. He serves on the Board of Directors of Ensuring Liberty, a political consulting and advocacy groups created by local tea party leaders from several states.

A Sampling of Bill’s Work

Op-Ed

The Christian Science Monitor, April 23, 2010.

http://www.csmonitor.com/Commentary/Opinion/2010/0423/Tea-party-founder-Why-our-movement-will-succeed-and-why-it-s-good-for-America

Television & Radio

Larry Kudlow May 19, 2010.

http://stlouisteaparty.com/2010/05/20/bill-hennessy-on-kudlow-report-may-19/

Larry Kudlow April 23, 2010

http://stlouisteaparty.com/2010/04/24/bill-hennessy-on-kudlow-co/

Glenn Beck, April 1, 2009

Cavuto, April 13, 2009 (transcript only)

http://findarticles.com/p/news-articles/analyst-wire/mi_8077/is_20090413/cavuto-april-13-2009/ai_n50865146/

KDHX Radio Interview, May 2010

http://kdhx.org/ondemand/collateraldamage/2010/05/03/st-louis-tea-partys-bill-hennessy/

Mentions

First Tea Party Protest

http://www.fox2now.com/news/ktvi-tea-party-stimulus-protest-022709,0,1816861.story

Coffingate

http://www.fox2now.com/news/ktvi-carnahan-coffin-yard-032510,0,4470234.story

Playboy Magazine, July 2010, Rogues of K Street

http://www.playboy.com/articles/rogues-of-k-street/index.html?page=1

Speeches

Tax Day 2010: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZyYpc0Qz2Rc

Quincy Illinois September 12, 2009: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CquJ4CHNHio

Alton Tea Party, July 2009: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B5lq9ytHdpM&feature=related

Tax Day 2009: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uZZqPPrmEko

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