Joseph Coors

Joseph "Joe" Coors, Sr. (November 12, 1917 – March 15, 2003), was the grandson of brewer Adolph Coors and president of Coors Brewing Company.

Birth and education

Coors was born in 1917 to Alice May Kistler (1885-1970) and Adolph Coors II. His siblings include Adolph Coors III and William Coors. He graduated from Cornell University in 1939 with a degree in chemical engineering, staying to earn a master's degree in 1940. His brother Adolph Coors III and cousin Dallas Morse Coors were his classmates, and all three were members of Kappa Alpha Society and Quill and Dagger society.

Marriage

He married Edith Holland "Holly" Hanson (Holly Coors) in 1941 and had five sons, Jeffrey, Joseph Jr., Grover, John and Peter Coors. He divorced Hanson in 1987 and was remarried to Anne Elizabeth Drotning a year later in 1988.

Brewing career

After graduation, he began work in the Coors Porcelain Co.; the porcelain business helped support the company during Prohibition. With his brother, William Coors, Joseph refined the cold-filtered beer manufacturing system and began America's first large-scale recycling program by offering 1-cent returns on Coors aluminum cans. He served one term as a regent of the University of Colorado, attempting to quell what he considered to be campus radicalism during the Vietnam war. He served as president of Coors from 1977 to 1985 and chief operating officer from 1980 to 1988. His leadership helped expand Coors beer distribution from western states to the entire USA.