William Coors

William Kistler Coors (August 11, 1916 – October 13, 2018) was an American brewery executive with the Coors Brewing Company. He was affiliated with the company for over 64 years, and was a board member from 1973 to 2003. He was a grandson of Adolph Coors (1847–1929), the company's founder. Biography Born in Golden, Colorado, on August 11, 1916, he was the son of Adolph Coors II and Alice Kistler May (1885–1970), and the brother of Adolph Coors III (1915–1960) and Joseph Coors Sr. (1917–2003). Coors earned a bachelor's degree from Princeton University in 1938, and a master's degree in chemical engineering in 1939. Coors had three daughters with his first wife Geraldine, who suffered from alcoholism and died of illness. William remarried in the 1960s and he and his wife, Phyllis, had one son, Scott. Coors' oldest daughter Geraldine committed suicide on August 5, 1983, at the age of 40 after suffering from depression. Coors climbed Mount Kilimanjaro in 1974 at age 58, as part of his pursuit of physical and spiritual health in the 1970s. The experience inspired him to establish the Coors Wellness Center for employees and retirees of Adolph Coors Co. in a former grocery store building just outside the brewery property in 1981.