November 20, 2025 • 10 mins
On this episode of Our American Stories, behind every bottle of Coors Light and every iconic pour of Coors Banquet is a family whose identity shaped the company more than any product ever could. Long before Coors became a national name, the family built the brewery on principles they considered nonnegotiable: faith, education, and a quiet sense of service. These tenets guided the decisions that turned a small Colorado operation into Coors Brewing Co., a brand that would help define what American beer could be. Here’s their story.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:10):
And we continue with our American stories, and up next
we bring you a story from Golden, Colorado, the home
of Core's brewing company. You'll hear from Pete Coorr's former
CEO and current chairman of Molson Coors and his daughter,
Carrie Tynan, the executive director of the Adolph Coors Foundation.
(00:30):
Robbie brings us the story. Here's Pete.
Speaker 2 (00:38):
Well, that kind of funny story. I was talking to
my uncle about reading the Bible. Yeah, I read the bag.
I read the Bible. I said, well, I think I've
read it cover to cover, maybe thirteen times. This way.
He didn't get it the first time.
Speaker 3 (00:55):
Pete Corer's commitment to reading the Bible has meant a
lot to his daughter Carrie.
Speaker 4 (01:00):
He's done that as long as I can remember, every morning.
But it was more importantly the consistency of Mass every week.
It didn't matter where we were, what trip we were on.
We could be in the middle of Texas or in
the middle of Italy. We were always going to go
to Mass. There was no questions asked, and we all
did it. But we joke that, you know, he allowed
(01:25):
my mom to be in church and be present because
he was in the jungle gym for us to climb
all over in our younger years.
Speaker 2 (01:34):
They were so bad in church. I'd haul him out.
Speaker 4 (01:39):
I'd pinch him, and my mom could sit there and
be present for church. Right, So he did.
Speaker 3 (01:45):
He did the heavy lifting.
Speaker 2 (01:48):
That was the master's sergeant at arms. I mean, it's
a funny story. Father's Day. I got a church, and
I think the hen was, let there be peace on earth,
and let them begin with me. And they would say,
let there be peace on earth, let them be wlong
with you, and it would be driving home and they're fighting.
(02:13):
And I got home. I was so angry. They'd given
me a Father's Day card I hadn't opened yet, and
I just ripped it up, said okay, I'm done. I'm
going upstairs. And the kid's eyes got biggest saucers. They
put a five dollars bill in that car, the half.
(02:34):
But they survived me and I.
Speaker 3 (02:36):
Survived them, but sometimes just barely. One trip to Rome
to see the holy sites wasn't quite so holy.
Speaker 2 (02:43):
Marilyn. I would have run and we'd have two rooms,
and we'd one room with three kids and another room
with three kids, and we had to be careful that
we line them up properly, and we get a call
from the front desk that there's this terrible racket going on,
and so I go down to the to the room
and Peter was Peter and Ashley or was Peter.
Speaker 4 (03:04):
And that was before we went to the Vatican, and
we were dressed in our finest and we were breakfasts
and the couple next to us said they thought there
was domestic.
Speaker 2 (03:12):
Violent, domestic violence going on in.
Speaker 4 (03:14):
The room next to them, and it.
Speaker 2 (03:17):
Was these guys were like the angels for breakfast, you know.
And the night before Peter Peter had hung with a
year Ashley, Ashley's teddy bear by the ceiling fan and
actually had poured water on his bed and they were screaming.
And then it's like just as pious as they could
(03:40):
be for breakfast. Oh what a beautiful family, you guys.
Speaker 4 (03:52):
Being one of six was the most important piece of
my upbringing because I couldn't We had to share our
time with our parents, with our siblings. It gave us
the opportunity to have multiple friends just within our nuclear family.
And because there were so many of us, resources were
spread and the lower you were down the pecking order,
(04:13):
the fewer the more hand me downs you had, but
you also had built in babysitters, So there were pros
and cons to both sides of it. From an education perspective,
our parents always valued education and Catholic education, but was
always based within our community. So community was so important
to us. Faith was first, our family was second. Maybe
(04:35):
a close tie, it would be a better way to
say that, but everything we did was centered around that,
with the knowledge that the more we learn, the better
off we're going to be. Our parents did everything they
possibly could to help us advance in our education and
to be successful in life, but also teaching us that
we wouldn't be handed anything, that we had to work
(04:57):
for it.
Speaker 2 (05:01):
I uh wanted them to know that I would take
care of them through their education, but when they graduated,
they were on their own. But I said, look, you graduate,
you get six months. You can take it anytime. You
can do that. You can be at home, you can
take it right after college, while you're looking for a job,
(05:21):
or sometime in life you're having challenges and you need
a place to go hang out, and you get six months.
But that's it. If you're going to have your own life.
It's important to us that We've given them the values
to be successful and to lead good lives and be
contributing members of society. I've got my life, Maryland, I
(05:46):
have our life. They have to have their life. We're
not going to be around forever anyway. We've kept that
one minor exception. But uh, but that's been a pretty
good way to raise.
Speaker 3 (05:58):
Them, you know.
Speaker 4 (06:01):
I think the other fun story with this is there
was a point when my parents had us in six
different time zones and seven different tuitions because my mom
was also earning her PhD. And that's how much our
family valued education. We may have been all over the
(06:22):
country and my dad was supporting all of us through that.
Speaker 2 (06:27):
So we had ten children, I mean, we had six
children in ten years, and so a lot of them
were going to school either either the paying Catholic school
tuition or they were going to universities. So it got
to be pretty interesting to keep track of everybody. I
had to borrow money at the tax time to pay
(06:47):
my taxes.
Speaker 4 (06:50):
To get over the hump, he just upgraded to an
Apple watch. It used to be a time X watch.
Speaker 2 (06:56):
And tell me money, Yeah, I got a Cassio or
a Timex forever and this helps me keep my appointments,
but I'll never catch up with all the technology that's
available now.
Speaker 3 (07:11):
Another important lesson learned in the Core's household was leadership.
Speaker 4 (07:15):
From my perspective watching my dad as a CEO growing up,
it taught me and I think my siblings as well,
the importance of relationships within a business. We would walk
anywhere in the company, and I think your father and
uncle were the same way that you walk through the
(07:36):
company and everyone would say hi to them, and they
knew everyone's names. They would stop and talk to all
of the employees. I don't know how they got much
work done, but they would stop to talk to all
the employees because the relationships that they had built within
the company and then even outside with distributorships and the
distributors was so important to the success of the company.
(07:57):
And it was really supporting them from the ground up
and doing anything their employees needed. So that was a
huge value to me. That a great takeaway.
Speaker 2 (08:06):
I used to say my business cards should have said
chief Cheerleader rather than CEO, because that's what I felt
my major job was and still feel that way. Actually,
it's one of my frustrations today. Obviously, I don't know
eighteen thousand employees. And I don't know as many employees
(08:27):
as I would like to know, even even here in
Golden because turnover and retirees and so forth. But I'll
be in Golden and be walking down the street and
somebody come up and say, Pete, how you doing. I said,
when did you retire thirty seven years or twenty two
years ago or something. And some of these guys third
(08:51):
generation working for the company, and they think of it
as working for the family, not the company.
Speaker 1 (08:59):
But that's.
Speaker 2 (09:01):
Having that personal relationship is really is really, really important,
and it's one of the things that we try to
train our management team is to have that personal relationship. Now,
it can be dangerous too. I developed too close a
personal relationship with a with one of our officers and
(09:25):
ended up having to terminate him. I had a CEO,
Leo Kylie, who came from PEPSI FREEDO A and he laughed.
We were talking about this one time of relationships and
he said, well, I had a VP that I had
to fire. And he said, next Christmas, I get a
Christmas card from him? On it please I open it
(09:46):
up and I said and side I said, merry Christmas,
you wreck my life, So I mean different people respond
and in different ways.
Speaker 1 (10:00):
And a special thanks to Robbie and Alex for the storytelling,
and a special thanks to Pete Cores and to carry Tynan,
his daughter for the storytelling. And we can hear the
joy of this father daughter relationship. And we spend a
lot of time talking about family, big or small, the
function and the importance of fathers and mothers and family. Well,
(10:21):
we love to emphasize that here on this show. I
love what Pete said about his kids. They survived me
and I survived them barely. Great storytelling. The Corrs family
story no different than families across this great country. Here
on our American Stories,
And we continue with our American stories, and up next
we bring you a story from Golden, Colorado, the home
of Core's brewing company. You'll hear from Pete Coorr's former
CEO and current chairman of Molson Coors and his daughter,
Carrie Tynan, the executive director of the Adolph Coors Foundation.
(00:30):
Robbie brings us the story. Here's Pete.
Speaker 2 (00:38):
Well, that kind of funny story. I was talking to
my uncle about reading the Bible. Yeah, I read the bag.
I read the Bible. I said, well, I think I've
read it cover to cover, maybe thirteen times. This way.
He didn't get it the first time.
Speaker 3 (00:55):
Pete Corer's commitment to reading the Bible has meant a
lot to his daughter Carrie.
Speaker 4 (01:00):
He's done that as long as I can remember, every morning.
But it was more importantly the consistency of Mass every week.
It didn't matter where we were, what trip we were on.
We could be in the middle of Texas or in
the middle of Italy. We were always going to go
to Mass. There was no questions asked, and we all
did it. But we joke that, you know, he allowed
(01:25):
my mom to be in church and be present because
he was in the jungle gym for us to climb
all over in our younger years.
Speaker 2 (01:34):
They were so bad in church. I'd haul him out.
Speaker 4 (01:39):
I'd pinch him, and my mom could sit there and
be present for church. Right, So he did.
Speaker 3 (01:45):
He did the heavy lifting.
Speaker 2 (01:48):
That was the master's sergeant at arms. I mean, it's
a funny story. Father's Day. I got a church, and
I think the hen was, let there be peace on earth,
and let them begin with me. And they would say,
let there be peace on earth, let them be wlong
with you, and it would be driving home and they're fighting.
(02:13):
And I got home. I was so angry. They'd given
me a Father's Day card I hadn't opened yet, and
I just ripped it up, said okay, I'm done. I'm
going upstairs. And the kid's eyes got biggest saucers. They
put a five dollars bill in that car, the half.
(02:34):
But they survived me and I.
Speaker 3 (02:36):
Survived them, but sometimes just barely. One trip to Rome
to see the holy sites wasn't quite so holy.
Speaker 2 (02:43):
Marilyn. I would have run and we'd have two rooms,
and we'd one room with three kids and another room
with three kids, and we had to be careful that
we line them up properly, and we get a call
from the front desk that there's this terrible racket going on,
and so I go down to the to the room
and Peter was Peter and Ashley or was Peter.
Speaker 4 (03:04):
And that was before we went to the Vatican, and
we were dressed in our finest and we were breakfasts
and the couple next to us said they thought there
was domestic.
Speaker 2 (03:12):
Violent, domestic violence going on in.
Speaker 4 (03:14):
The room next to them, and it.
Speaker 2 (03:17):
Was these guys were like the angels for breakfast, you know.
And the night before Peter Peter had hung with a
year Ashley, Ashley's teddy bear by the ceiling fan and
actually had poured water on his bed and they were screaming.
And then it's like just as pious as they could
(03:40):
be for breakfast. Oh what a beautiful family, you guys.
Speaker 4 (03:52):
Being one of six was the most important piece of
my upbringing because I couldn't We had to share our
time with our parents, with our siblings. It gave us
the opportunity to have multiple friends just within our nuclear family.
And because there were so many of us, resources were
spread and the lower you were down the pecking order,
(04:13):
the fewer the more hand me downs you had, but
you also had built in babysitters, So there were pros
and cons to both sides of it. From an education perspective,
our parents always valued education and Catholic education, but was
always based within our community. So community was so important
to us. Faith was first, our family was second. Maybe
(04:35):
a close tie, it would be a better way to
say that, but everything we did was centered around that,
with the knowledge that the more we learn, the better
off we're going to be. Our parents did everything they
possibly could to help us advance in our education and
to be successful in life, but also teaching us that
we wouldn't be handed anything, that we had to work
(04:57):
for it.
Speaker 2 (05:01):
I uh wanted them to know that I would take
care of them through their education, but when they graduated,
they were on their own. But I said, look, you graduate,
you get six months. You can take it anytime. You
can do that. You can be at home, you can
take it right after college, while you're looking for a job,
(05:21):
or sometime in life you're having challenges and you need
a place to go hang out, and you get six months.
But that's it. If you're going to have your own life.
It's important to us that We've given them the values
to be successful and to lead good lives and be
contributing members of society. I've got my life, Maryland, I
(05:46):
have our life. They have to have their life. We're
not going to be around forever anyway. We've kept that
one minor exception. But uh, but that's been a pretty
good way to raise.
Speaker 3 (05:58):
Them, you know.
Speaker 4 (06:01):
I think the other fun story with this is there
was a point when my parents had us in six
different time zones and seven different tuitions because my mom
was also earning her PhD. And that's how much our
family valued education. We may have been all over the
(06:22):
country and my dad was supporting all of us through that.
Speaker 2 (06:27):
So we had ten children, I mean, we had six
children in ten years, and so a lot of them
were going to school either either the paying Catholic school
tuition or they were going to universities. So it got
to be pretty interesting to keep track of everybody. I
had to borrow money at the tax time to pay
(06:47):
my taxes.
Speaker 4 (06:50):
To get over the hump, he just upgraded to an
Apple watch. It used to be a time X watch.
Speaker 2 (06:56):
And tell me money, Yeah, I got a Cassio or
a Timex forever and this helps me keep my appointments,
but I'll never catch up with all the technology that's
available now.
Speaker 3 (07:11):
Another important lesson learned in the Core's household was leadership.
Speaker 4 (07:15):
From my perspective watching my dad as a CEO growing up,
it taught me and I think my siblings as well,
the importance of relationships within a business. We would walk
anywhere in the company, and I think your father and
uncle were the same way that you walk through the
(07:36):
company and everyone would say hi to them, and they
knew everyone's names. They would stop and talk to all
of the employees. I don't know how they got much
work done, but they would stop to talk to all
the employees because the relationships that they had built within
the company and then even outside with distributorships and the
distributors was so important to the success of the company.
(07:57):
And it was really supporting them from the ground up
and doing anything their employees needed. So that was a
huge value to me. That a great takeaway.
Speaker 2 (08:06):
I used to say my business cards should have said
chief Cheerleader rather than CEO, because that's what I felt
my major job was and still feel that way. Actually,
it's one of my frustrations today. Obviously, I don't know
eighteen thousand employees. And I don't know as many employees
(08:27):
as I would like to know, even even here in
Golden because turnover and retirees and so forth. But I'll
be in Golden and be walking down the street and
somebody come up and say, Pete, how you doing. I said,
when did you retire thirty seven years or twenty two
years ago or something. And some of these guys third
(08:51):
generation working for the company, and they think of it
as working for the family, not the company.
Speaker 1 (08:59):
But that's.
Speaker 2 (09:01):
Having that personal relationship is really is really, really important,
and it's one of the things that we try to
train our management team is to have that personal relationship. Now,
it can be dangerous too. I developed too close a
personal relationship with a with one of our officers and
(09:25):
ended up having to terminate him. I had a CEO,
Leo Kylie, who came from PEPSI FREEDO A and he laughed.
We were talking about this one time of relationships and
he said, well, I had a VP that I had
to fire. And he said, next Christmas, I get a
Christmas card from him? On it please I open it
(09:46):
up and I said and side I said, merry Christmas,
you wreck my life, So I mean different people respond
and in different ways.
Speaker 1 (10:00):
And a special thanks to Robbie and Alex for the storytelling,
and a special thanks to Pete Cores and to carry Tynan,
his daughter for the storytelling. And we can hear the
joy of this father daughter relationship. And we spend a
lot of time talking about family, big or small, the
function and the importance of fathers and mothers and family. Well,
(10:21):
we love to emphasize that here on this show. I
love what Pete said about his kids. They survived me
and I survived them barely. Great storytelling. The Corrs family
story no different than families across this great country. Here
on our American Stories,
Host
Lee Habeeb
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