'Man on a mission'

Q&A | Fighting “suicide on the installment plan”: Denver’s Bob Coté knows a different way to help some among the homeless | Marvin Olasky

James Allen Walker for WORLD

Bob Coté, 61, is a rough-hewn example of God's grace. He could have died a quarter-century ago in a Denver gutter, but his life changed and he's helped many others to change.

Q: Where and when did you take your first drink? I grew up in Detroit and took my first drink when I was 15.

Q: You graduated from high school and became a salesman because you wanted opportunities to drink. I'm not the brightest bulb in the lamp, but I figured I could sit in a bar and drink for three days and then sell hard for two.

Q: You got married, then left your wife and two children and ended up in Denver. I was still drinking very heavily. I started a landscaping business because Denver didn't have any landscapers who knew what they were doing. I made a lot of money, saved 50-something grand, and decided to go up to Jackson Hole, Wyoming. I went there to drink and didn't return to Denver for a year.