Robert Morel Montgomery, Jr. (1930-2008) was born in East Lake, Alabama, the son and grandson of attorneys. Robert graduated from the University of Alabama, where he met and married art major Mary McKenzie (1930- ). Montgomery paid his own way through the University of Florida Law School, because his father wanted his son to be a doctor.
Montgomery joined the Howell and Kirby law firm in Jacksonville in 1957, became a partner, and came to West Palm Beach in 1966 to open a branch office. During his early career, Montgomery represented corporations, including Bristol-Meyers in one of the first lawsuits against manufacturers of birth control pills. In the mid-1970s, after he successfully represented an insurance company against the family of a severely injured child, Montgomery dropped all insurance companies as clients and started suing them instead. His many high-profile cases include patients who contracted the AIDS virus from their dentist; the state of Florida’s suit against the tobacco industry; and a teacher’s family against the distributor of the gun used to kill him. Montgomery received large fees for much of his work, and took nothing for many others.
Robert and Mary Montgomery give generously to a variety of organizations, especially in the arts. In the 1970s, they started a decade of long annual trips to Europe, and then dedicated themselves to improving Palm Beach County’s culture, often opening their home for events. Beneficiaries of their leadership and generosity include the Children’s Place at Home Safe, Palm Beach Opera, the Raymond F. Kravis Center for the Performing Arts, the Florida Philharmonic, the Armory Arts Center renamed in their honor, and the Palm Beach County Council of the Arts, now the Palm Beach County Cultural Council. A fellow attorney said of Robert Montgomery, “[h]e takes on things other lawyers shirk from because they’re difficult or not profitable. He looks for ways to use our legal system to effect social change and to serve our community, and that’s unique. “