Adolph Coors

Adolph Herman Joseph Coors, Sr. (born Adolph Hermann Josef Kuhrs or some variant thereof) (February 4, 1847 – June 5, 1929) was a German American brewer who founded the Adolph Coors Company in Golden, Colorado in 1873.

Early years

Adolph Kohrs was born in Barmen in Rhenish Prussia on February 4, 1847, the son of Joseph Kohrs (c.1820–1862) and Helena Heim (c.1820–1862). He was apprenticed at age thirteen to the book and stationery store of Andrea & Company in nearby Ruhrort from November 1860 until June 1862. His mother died on April 2, 1862. The Kuhrs family moved to Dortmund, Westphalia. In July 1862, Adolph was apprenticed for a three-year period at a brewery owned by Henry Wenker in Dortmund. He was charged a fee for his apprenticeship, so he worked as a bookkeeper to pay for it. His father died on November 24, 1862. Orphaned, Adolph completed his apprenticeship and continued to work as a paid employee at the Wenker Brewery until May 1867. He then worked at breweries in Kassel, Berlin, and Uelzen in Germany.

Adolph Coors II

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, where he was a member of the Sphinx Head Society and the Beta Delta chapter of Beta Theta Pi. He became an accomplished chemist who worked in prominent positions in the family's brewing and porcelain operations. He married Alice May Kistler (1885–1970) of Denver 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), 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, along with 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. 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.