Robert Natale was born and raised in Ventura, California, in a life rooted in sports from the time he was seven years old. He played every sport he could, but at fourteen he picked up a different role: coach. The passion for coaching never left him.

Over a thirty-year coaching career, Robert worked with high school football, basketball, and baseball teams, with football as his deepest love. He raised his children in the atmosphere of attending games and watching sports on TV, and that love passed straight to them. Kevin, in particular, gravitated toward sports as a toddler, and the bond between father and son was built on shared games, shared teams, and shared dreams of the field.

Robert went on to spend years as a sales representative and business owner in the sports photography industry, and is now semi-retired in East Tennessee, working part time at a local golf course. He and his wife Amanda live there together. Robert is a father of four (Kevin, Kristine, Elizabeth, and Brandon), grandfather to nine, and great-grandfather to one. Amanda has three children of her own. The family is large, scattered, and held together by love.

After Kevin’s passing in December 2022, Robert took on the responsibility of finishing the book Kevin had been writing for years. One Shot, One Bullet is the result, written in Robert’s voice as Kevin’s father, with Kevin’s own words woven throughout. The book is dedicated to the Road Dawgs, the brotherhood of recovery friends who walked with Kevin in his hardest years, and to every reader who has ever needed to hear that forgiveness is possible.