Adolph Herman Joseph Coors Jr. (January 12, 1884 – June 28, 1970) was an American businessman. He was the son of Louisa (Webber) and brewer Adolph Coors, and the second President of Coors Brewing Company.

Life and career

Coors was a graduate of

Cornell University Cornell University is a Private university, private Ivy League research university based in Ithaca, New York, United States. The university was co-founded by American philanthropist Ezra Cornell and historian and educator Andrew Dickson W ...

, where he was a member of the Sphinx Head Society and the

Kappa Alpha Society The Kappa Alpha Society () is a North American social college fraternity. Founded in 1825, it was the progenitor of the modern fraternity system in North America. It is considered to be the oldest national, secret, Greek-letter social fraterni ...

. He became an accomplished chemist who worked in prominent positions in the family's brewing and

porcelain Porcelain (), also called china, is a ceramic material made by heating Industrial mineral, raw materials, generally including kaolinite, in a kiln to temperatures between . The greater strength and translucence of porcelain, relative to oth ...

operations. He married Alice May Kistler (1885–1970) of

Denver Denver ( ) is a List of municipalities in Colorado#Consolidated city and county, consolidated city and county, the List of capitals in the United States, capital and List of municipalities in Colorado, most populous city of the U.S. state of ...

on May 4, 1912, at the Kistler home by Rev. Van Arsdall. The couple had four children: Adolph Coors III (1915–1960) who was kidnapped and killed in 1960; William K. Coors (1916–2018), Joseph Coors (1917–2003), and May Louise Coors (1923–2008). Coors had his own brush with kidnapping in 1934. Paul Robert Lane, the former state Prohibition agent for Colorado, and Clyde Culbertson, former investigator for the federal dry forces, along with two other men conspired to kidnap Adolph Jr. for a ransom of $50,000. The person delivering the money was to proceed to three different checkpoints to ensure no officers were tailing him and then split the money; Coors would be released somewhere around

Colorado Springs Colorado Springs is the most populous city in El Paso County, Colorado, United States, and its county seat. The city had a population of 478,961 at the 2020 census, a 15.02% increase since 2010. Colorado Springs is the second-most populous c ...

. Denver police learned of the plot while working on an auto theft ring and Adolph Jr. volunteered to be kidnapped so the police could arrest the suspects. However, Lane was arrested on an auto theft charge and the conspiracy was foiled in advance. Adolph Coors Jr. died in 1970 at the age of 86 years old.

References

American drink industry businesspeople Coors family Cornell University alumni 1884 births 1970 deaths People from the Denver metropolitan area People from Golden, Colorado American brewers {{US-business-bio-1880s-stub