Written by Margo Hamilton with Bill Coors
BILL COORS: THE WILL TO LIVE
Bill Coors was born August 11, 1916, in a family bungalow that nestled in the shadows of his grandfather’s regal home. Loving and doting defined Adolph Coors as a father, but not as a grandfather. His three grandsons, Adolph III, Bill, and Joe were raised as “bird dogs” with one duty to fulfill, to become brewers. Each of the three secretly envisioned their lives freed of the brewery, but Bill was destined to become beer industry leaders to one of the world’s largest breweries.
At age 13, no one told Bill that his emotionally distant grandfather committed suicide. Forty-four years later, Bill’s eldest daughter re-enacted her grandfather’s death. Missy’s death further distanced him from sharing his truth. “I might have been born with a silver spoon in my mouth and lacked for nothing in the eyes of the public, but I was lonely and miserable as a boy. Those feelings remained locked within for nearly 100 years.”
Bill forever changed brewing and beverage packaging because of his love for the environment. He incepted the two-piece aluminum can based on the simple fact it could be recycled. Peace filled his soul when he romped the trails of the Rocky Mountains and this led to him support the Outward Bound program throughout the western hemisphere. Knowing single mothers and newly released felons needed jobs, he created The Golden Door of Opportunity but was wrongly accused of being racist, sexist and homophobic. He also pioneered the world of corporate wellness, but behind closed doors, he remained stoic with the ones that needed him most.
Through this book, Bill Coors wanted to put a figurative arm around the shoulders of readers who, like him, lost their will to live. This remained his mission to the very day he took his last breath, 10 hours after completing this book.
Margo Hamilton
Margo Hamilton was tasked to reveal how hurt turned to hate while working with at-risk youth involved in gangs, prostitution and addiction issues during the late 1980’s and early 1990’s. Working directly with teens who had turned to self-addiction, violent rampages and destructive behaviors as a means to act out their hurt availed Hamilton opportunities to both speak and write for the masses through the venues of radio and public speaking engagements. Although the task was daunting, Hamilton drew from her own painful experience when she was sexually violated at age six. Her mother viciously demanded she “tell no one.” Years later, as her mother lay on her deathbed, she learned how she had been viciously violated and abused as a child. While in college, a friend tragically took her own life by hanging herself with a dog leash in a tree on campus property. Sharing these stories with other victims of abuse created a bond and a bridge that provide help and hope to restore the will to live to many.
Hamilton’s writing skills were honed by a former Time/Life book editor who took the then-fledgling writer under her wing and instilled in her the importance of “making every word count.” She was a co-creator of a community newspaper in 1993 that is still in print, and in 2003, she was asked to serve as a feature writer for a newly created community-imaging magazine that availed opportunities to interview Colorado notables such as John Elway, actor Boti Bliss and countless others. It was through that venue that Hamilton met Bill Coors and his son, Scott. A decade later Bill asked her to to collaborate with him on his inspirational biographical memoir and documentary, both entitled Bill Coors: The Will to Live.