He used to sleep under the bridge behind Finnegan's in warm weather, and on cold nights, he'd doze in a chair at Break Espresso until he'd topple to the floor.
That's how Timm Stotts found the proud wanderer one day a couple of years ago, long before Gleason could afford to pay for a motel. Stotts, 51, is a cinematographer and carpenter whose grandfather left the family farm in Iowa and died a bum in a gutter in Seattle. The problem of hunger consumes Stotts, whose work wrestles with why 30,000 people die every day around the world for lack of food.
At the time, Gleason didn't even have an ID, and he carried his belongings in plastic garbage bags that hung from his bicycle's handlebars.
Now, the vagabond who wandered the streets for more than 20 years rides a 2008 Harley-Davidson Heritage Softail - for which he paid cash.
Gleason's light brown eyes twinkle a lot. He just got a haircut, but he also wears some food on his cardigan. He laughs often when he tells stories, even the sad ones. When he was a younger man living in Washington's Tri-Cities, Gleason loved motorcycles as much as his wife despised them. As he tells it, she'd sit in the car and cry while he'd collect trophies at the races. One day he came home to find his belongings strewn on the lawn.
“We're having a yard sale?” asked Gleason, an optimist.
The marriage ended, and Gleason said he fell apart. He drank a lot, but worked, too, joining the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers and traveling around the country running a backhoe. He bought a bicycle and pedaled his way around America, too. At his daughter's place in Phoenix one day, his heart seized and he collapsed.
That's how Gleason landed here. His daughter shipped him to Montana so he could get help from her mom - his ex-wife - and doctors. In Missoula, doctors opened his chest and gave him a heart valve that once belonged to a pig.
Gleason said he almost died, and a doctor quizzed him about his experience. He recalled the exchange in his Gleasonesque way: “He said, ‘You saw the other side?' I said, ‘It wasn't all that bad.' ”
Recovery was bad, though. Gleason couldn't live forever with his ex and her husband in Plains, and after a month, he struck out on his own. In Missoula, he found shelter where he could, and sometimes he didn't eat. His legs turned purple. One day, he awoke at the Break with Stotts standing over him.
Something in Stotts recognized Gleason's predicament, maybe since food and poverty shadow his own story. The first year that Stotts farmed his family's acres alone, drought killed the crop and he went broke. After his parents died, he sold the farm, and friends in the film community called him to Missoula.
He'd visited before, having judged entries in the International Wildlife Film Festival. Stotts is an ecologist who started his career filming coyotes in Yellowstone National Park, but somewhere along the way, a passion for his own species took root. Now, he pounds nails here to earn money so he and his cameras can disappear into some of the world's hungriest places, like a landfill in Kenya and one of Africa's largest slums in the same country.
“If we profess to be a higher species, then why are we not providing for our fellow man?” Stotts says.
So when Stotts saw Gleason all akimbo, he did more than straighten him up. The biker didn't have the patience for the tedious tasks of clawing himself back into society, and the film guy felt compelled to help. So stitching Gleason back into the system is something the gentlemen did together.
“These people living on the street can't get plugged back into society without help,” Stotts said.
Said Gleason: “You gotta jump hoops, and you gotta have the patience of the Dalai Lama and hope the world changes. It don't change very fast.”
The men slogged through the maze of government bureaucracy together and got Gleason off the streets. At times, the paperwork and bureaucratic questions overwhelmed Gleason, and he lost patience. On the worst day, he insulted the official who was supposed to help him get food stamps, and he left her office in a huff.
“I got up and walked out,” Gleason said. “I didn't say anything about food stamps. I just said, ‘I don't need it. I can always find a bagel.' ”
But the men persevered. People who have been living on the streets can't just walk into a Post Office and get a mailbox, so Stotts helped Gleason get a voter registration card and an ID card. Those allowed him to open a post office box, a big part of getting Gleason back on his feet. The mailbox meant the government had a place to send his disability and Social Security checks.
“He was so proud,” Stotts said. “He goes, ‘I'm getting punched back in.' ” And then, his old union found him.
Gleason's union account had grown all the years the brotherhood hadn't been able to track him down. One day in May, he picked up a check - for $79,000.
“I was on a bus the same day heading to Bozeman. I was in the shop the next day, and I took a cab to the Harley dealership and walked in. They said, ‘We do finance.' I said, ‘Here's the cash.' ”
Gleason paid $20,000 for the Softail, rode it back to Missoula and suffered insomnia: “I had a hard time going to bed, I was so excited. I always wanted one of these. It's the ultimate cruise machine.”
In less than a year, he logged 18,000 miles on his motorcycle. When he showed up in Sturgis a day early for the motorcycle rally, he came back to Missoula and did the 700-mile trip again the following day. He rode through pneumonia, he rides through emphysema and he'll ride to Arizona soon to see his daughter.
“That's my first bike in 20 years,” Gleason said.
He figures he'll fall off it a few times. He doesn't figure he'll fall back into the streets, though he still keeps his motel room door cracked when he sleeps. Sometimes, he offers change to street people, and he bought cherries, bananas, milk and eggs to repay the Missoula Food Bank.
Last week at the Break, the biker pulled out his Velcro wallet to show his photo ID, issued Dec. 5, 2008. He told Stotts he'd paid a full month of rent that very day.
Stotts figures there's more people like Gleason out there, people who need some momentum getting past the bureaucrats to tap into services. He doesn't expect everyone to adopt a bum, but he disagrees with the notion those street folks are either mentally unstable or choosing their lifestyles. Around the coffee table at the Break, Gleason and Stotts talked about the transients across the street.
“What have these guys done? Sit here, moan and groan and complain and look through the garbage,” Gleason said.
Said Stotts: “Well, we don't really know what their stories are. And everybody has one.”
Reporter Keila Szpaller can be reached at 523-5262 or at keila.szpaller@missoulian.com.
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DeJea wrote on Apr 13, 2009 1:25 PM:
" Awesome article! Sometime people just need that little nudge to get them going again, problem is not to many are willing to take that chance. thank you Timm for being there for this man. Good luck Dennis, keep strong "
Not Impressed wrote on Apr 13, 2009 2:40 PM:
" You've taken a bum living on public handouts off the street and made him a bum living off public handouts in a hotel room. I'm glad to see this poor "disabled" guy enjoying himself riding around on his motorcycle while the rest of us are at work to fund the disability and Social Security checks he gets in that great new mailbox you set up for him. This guy is a bum, his own daughter passed him on to his ex wife who kicked him out and now the taxpayer is taking care of him. Maybe you should get him a job before you go on the front page of the paper with an article about your "success". "
Jessica wrote on Apr 13, 2009 10:50 PM:
" You know "not impressed" he is still a person! You don't know his whole story and someday he could be you. He's not living off public handouts! He worked years in a union and is now living off that hard work! And his social security is rightfully his. You should be ashamed of yourself! "
Not Impressed wrote on Apr 14, 2009 3:12 PM:
" I work hard and make a contribution to this community and I'm not "ashamed" that I expect others to do the same. "
well Im impressed wrote on Apr 14, 2009 3:35 PM:
" Boo!!! shame on you Not Impressed! This is a very well written piece about a success story. It's supposed to make you FEEL GOOD!! Why don't you feel good? This man was on the streets and if I'm not mistaken he received a check for $79,000 that was rightfully his to buy his motorcycle. He paid his dues, had he not come into contact with Mr. Stotts, he might not have gotten that money, thus a new lease on life. Take joy in life! Who cares if you, the taxpayer, must pay taxes, consider it a blessing that you even have a job in the first place! Someday you may be in a dire strait situation and I hope to God there is a caring individual to show you compassion that you obviously cannot show this man. God Bless you.... "
Patia wrote on Apr 15, 2009 12:03 PM:
" What a sweet story. I think we should start an "Adopt A Bum" program. "
B wrote on Apr 16, 2009 12:46 PM:
" This is a feel good story because he helped a guy get on welfare? Helped a guy to figure out how to get a disability check because he almost drank himself to death? A feel good story is when the guy gets a job and contributes back to society, not a welfare check. He is too disabled to work for a living, but he can ride a motorcycle 18,000 mile in less than a year?
Also interesting: He rode his bike to Sturgis last summer, but his photo id was issued in December - so no license, he rode illegally - would it be a safe bet he also has no insurance, so when he "falls off it a few times" I hope it isn't because he ran into someone, since taxpayers will be picking up the tab for that as well. And somehow people feel good about all of this.
The real hero of this story was the official who made it hard on him to get food stamps - that person knew what a scam this is, and is fighting the good fight for the rest of us. I admit that part made me feel good, that somewhere a government official does care about not wasting our money. "
Also interesting: He rode his bike to Sturgis last summer, but his photo id was issued in December - so no license, he rode illegally - would it be a safe bet he also has no insurance, so when he "falls off it a few times" I hope it isn't because he ran into someone, since taxpayers will be picking up the tab for that as well. And somehow people feel good about all of this.
The real hero of this story was the official who made it hard on him to get food stamps - that person knew what a scam this is, and is fighting the good fight for the rest of us. I admit that part made me feel good, that somewhere a government official does care about not wasting our money. "
Carol wrote on Apr 13, 2009 9:00 AM: