If she exemplified her system of ethics, and also was a bad person, then yes, the system is bad. If she failed to exemplify her system of ethics, it doesn't tell us much one way or the other about the quality of that system regardless of her behavior. It's not an ad hominem when we are directly talking about systems of ethics, to discuss a person's behavior.
I don't see all the wealthy people running away from paying taxes for the common good to be much of an example of altruism. Charity, as a system of dealing with social issues, does not work. Assistance needs to be spread out evenhandedly, not as a system of rewards and punishments for doing whatever the wealthy find pleasing. I'm not sure how someone could make a stand that that's not just pushing people to be performing animals for treats, which is gross.
Is there a specific single book on her philosophy that covers it all that you'd suggest I read? I do want to be evenhanded about this, and it has been some time since I read Atlas Shrugged and The Fountainhead, at the insistence of a business major friend of mine who thought I was too altruistic and needed some tempering.