Adolph Herman Joseph Coors Sr

Adolph Herrman Kohrs (who changed the spelling of his surname to Coors), was born on February 4, 1847 in Barmen, a Prussian city that would later be known as the German city of Wuppertal. His parents, Helena Hein and Johan Joseph Kohrs, were a working couple of modest means. To help the family, young Adolph was apprenticed to a stationer in the nearby town of Ruhfort, where he worked as a printer's assistant. When the family moved to Dortmund in 1862, Coors signed a three-year article of apprenticeship to the Henry Wenker Brewery. He made his way to Hamburg and then stowed away on a ship bound for the United States. Coors was discovered long before the ship reached America's shores, but the captain was forgiving as long as Coors was willing to work in Baltimore to pay for his passage. For the next year he earned his living as a bricklayer, stonecutter, fireman, and general laborer. Always restless, and not having forgotten his dream of a perfect beer, Coors left Baltimore 1869 for a job with the Stenger Brewery in Naperville, Illinois. He was hired as a foreman and, for two years, learned more about brewing. He saved his money and decided to head west. Even with some money in his pocket, he worked his way to Denver with a railroad job. In Denver, Coors purchased a partnership in a bottling company and, by 1872, was the sole owner. during a walk around Golden, Colorado, he came across the rich Clear Creek valley, east of town. Bubbling up from the ground were many clear, cool springs of crystal pure water. He found an abandoned tannery on the bank of the river, at the base of Table Mountain. Coors knew that perfect water was the most basic ingredient of a perfect beer. He had found the right location for his brewery. Jacob Schueler trusted Coors, and agreed to finance the young brewer with $18,000. Twenty-six-year-old Coors contributed his own fortune of $2,000. The partners bought land and spent all the rest of their money remodeling the old tannery and buying brewing equipment. In the very first year, the brewery showed a profit, with a premium beer that Coors had developed. His product used the finest ingredients available, and the profits were always reinvested in the business. By 1880, Coors was able to buy out Schueler and become the sole owner of his brewery. In 1879, Coors married Louisa Weber of Denver and, by 1893, was the father of six children, three sons and three daughters. Two of Coors' sons, Grover and Adolph Jr., graduated from Cornell University in preparation for assuming a role in the family business. In 1912, when he was 65, Coors appointed his son, Adolph Jr., to be superintendent of the Coors Company. By then, all three sons were firmly involved with the company, which remained a family enterprise. During the 17 so-called "prohibition years," Coors turned his brewery into a cement manufacturing plant, and also a plant that fashioned scientific and chemical products made from porcelain. Coors Porcelain Company, created solely to get the company through prohibition, grew into one of the world's leading industrial and technical ceramic manufacturers. Coors died in an accidental fall from a hotel window while visiting Virginia Beach, Virginia on June 5, 1929.