Adolph Coors II


Adolph Herman Joseph Coors Jr. was an American businessman. He was the son of Louisa 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 Kappa Alpha Society. He became an accomplished chemist who worked in prominent positions in the family's brewing and porcelain operations. He married Alice May Kistler of Denver on May 4, 1912, at the Kistler home by Rev. Van Arsdall. The couple had four children: Adolph Coors III who was kidnapped and killed in 1960; William K. Coors, Joseph Coors, and May Louise Coors.
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.
Adolph Coors Jr. died in 1970 at the age of 86 years old.