I would have to say my best man's neighbor. He doesn't really know me and I never really knew him...but what I did know is that I found out at 50 he was ER'd. That was probably when I was around 25 or so that I first heard early retirement was a 'thing'. He unkowingly planted the FIRE seed into my brain that got me thinking, $hit if they can do it why can't I? My ol man always preached the opposite...hard work until Social Security and Medicare etc. So in a sense, DF is kinda my second role model because between these two characters it was sort of a rich dad, poor dad manifesto where I saw one guy that DID it..and one guy that almost levied AGAINST it. I saw that my ol man worked almost too hard, as he states "Overkill" in terms of working too long.
In terms of the FI part of FIRE, my model was my mom, only because I saw a women who worked sooo hard in her life to never have much add up. A lot of this was the choices she made, and it showed me as a model that if I just made different / better choices I could probably have a different result.
And finally, RobbieB! Mainly because of his blunt, straight-to-the-point, matter-of-fact ways and personality along with showing the BTD side of ER that to me is really the lifestyle I crave. Having the $$ to not have to worry about spending a bit here and there on the things that make us happy.
Amethyst also is a bit of a role model to me. I read her story about sailing and early life adventures and such and always admired her class and dignity in how she presents information and justification. She sort of modeled that hey, W*RK doesn't need to be that bad if you keep on having those fun adventures.
And "my god" or perhaps just simply the faith that knowing anything is possible is probably a large portion of it for me. SO many people have told me this goal is not appropriate, not worthwhile, not achievable or simply nonsense that it takes a lot of faith following what is important even in the face of adversity.