Susan Gore

Susan Gore has long been a mysterious yet influential figure — quietly using her large fortune to ensure the supremacy of conservative causes. She was one of several children to inherit the wealth of her father, who helped invent the waterproof fabric that came to be known as Gore-Tex. After getting a divorce in 1981, she joined the Transcendental Meditation movement, according to court documents in Delaware, but she became gravely ill and left the movement to convalesce in monasteries for three years. In a bizarre turn two decades later, she tried to adopt her former husband in an attempt to increase their children’s share of the family inheritance. She has been a force in Wyoming politics since she moved to the state in the 1990s. In 2008, she established Wyoming Liberty Group, a nonprofit in Cheyenne that pushes libertarian and conservative causes.