The Grassroots Corner January 5th, 2026

        The FAIRtax organization remembers its former Florida State Director and national leader, Mark Gupton, who passed away recently at the age of 86. Mark lived in Ponte Vedra, Florida. Mark was instrumental in the FAIRtax movement in the early 2000s and assembled one of its largest followings.

        Mark played a major role in the creation of the Florida FAIRtax Educational Association.  He served for two decades as its president. Mark was instrumental in obtaining the passage of the Florida FAIRtax Memorial, SM-118 (2014), in the Florida Legislature. You can read the memorial here: https://www.flsenate.gov/Session/Bill/2014/118/BillText/Filed/PDF. In that memorial, the Florida Legislature urged the U.S. Congress to pass the Fair Tax Act of 2013, which is the same bill currently in the House Ways and Means Committee. The Florida Memorial is the model for the recently passed Tennessee Memorial HJR 17 passed this year. You can read the Tennessee resolution here: https://fairtax.org/about/tennessee-joint-resolution-hjr-17.

        Our current Florida State Director, Paul Livingston, reports that he has learned much from Mark. Paul remembers Mark as a man who took action to make things better.

​​​​​​​        Our FAIRtax Vice President and Board Member, Randy Fischer, noted that Mark was instrumental in pulling him back to the FAIRtax cause in 2012 and was truly a force in getting Senate Memorial SM-118 passed. Randy says he has photos from Mark’s "retirement" dinner.

​​​​​​​        Mark was born in Fayetteville, North Carolina, and grew up in Red Springs. Mark entered Campbell College in Buies Creek, North Carolina, a two-year school at the time. After graduation, he transferred to East Carolina University in Greenville, where he graduated with a Bachelor of Science Degree in Business. After graduating, Mark accepted a position with Carnation Company. Nestlé acquired Carnation, and Mark stayed with Nestlé until retirement after forty-one years of service.

​​​​​​​        In 1959, his senior year of college, Mark married Penny Hamilton. Mark and Penny had two sons, six grandchildren, and one great-grandchild. Mark spent many hours coaching Little League Baseball and served as the league's President while living in Hollywood, FL.

​​​​​​​        Tributes have been coming in. We lost a legend with Mark.

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