William Coors

William Kistler "Bill" Coors (August 11, 1916 in Colorado) is a grandson of Adolph Coors (1847-1929), founder of the Coors Brewing Company. He has been affiliated with the company for 64 years, and was a board member from 1973 to 2003. He turned 100 in August 2016.

Born in 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 (1916-60) 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.

In early 1960, William's brother Adolph III was kidnapped and murdered.

William married his wife Phyllis in the 1960s. They have one son, Scott. Coors' oldest daughter Geraldine committed suicide August 5, 1983 at the age of 40 after suffering from depression.

William Coors entered the family business as a chemical engineer for Coors Brewing Company.

Coors was respected in the industry for his ability in packaging, bottling, and engineering. He is credited with pioneering the recyclable two-piece aluminum can, which is now standard throughout the industry. In the 1950s, Coors requested $250,000 from his father, CEO Adolph Coors, Jr., to build an experimental line of aluminum cans. By the early 1960s, can recycling was viable, and the company offered customers a one-cent deposit on returned cans.

Coors was elected to the board of directors in 1973. When the non-brewing assets (e.g., Coors Ceramics Co.) of Adolph Coors Co. were spun off in 1992 as ACX Technologies Inc., Bill Coors served as chairman of both companies.

In 2003, at the age of 87, Coors retired from the boards of the Adolph Coors Company and the Coors Brewing Company, although he remained with the company as chief technical adviser.

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