Beer magnate Pete Coors will be feted as the 2011 Citizen of the West during the National Western Stock Show.
Coors was chosen by a committee of community leaders as someone who embodies “the spirit and determination of the western pioneer, and who are committed to perpetuating the West’s agricultural heritage and ideals.”
Coors will accept the award at a dinner Monday at the Sheraton Denver Downtown Hotel in Denver. Proceeds from the dinner support 74 annual scholarships awarded by the National Western Scholarship Trust.
Coors, a fifth-generation brewer of his family’s namesake beer, is chairman of Molson Coors Brewing Co. and chairman of MillerCoors.
His great-grandfather, Adolph Coors, founded the Golden brewery in 1873.
Pete Coors’ uncle, William Coors, was Citizen of the West in 1992.
He also is president of Energy Corp. of America, the Adolph Coors Foundation and the Castle Rock Foundation.
He has served on the executive boards of the Denver Area Council of the Boy Scouts of America, the National Western Stock Show Association, Johnson and Wales University Corp. and the Denver Art Museum Foundation.
“Without Pete, the Rockies and Coors Field would not be here,” stock show chairman Jerry McMorris said in a statement. “Our state, region and country are better because of Pete Coors and the leadership he has provided. He is a true Citizen of the West.”
Coors and his wife, Marilyn, have six children and seven grandchildren.
The award has been handed out during the stock show since 1978.
Past Citizens of the West
2010 Tom and Rebecca Love Kourlis
2009 Dick and Eddie Robinson
2008 Hank Brown
2007 Cortlandt S. Dietler
E 2006 Sue Anschutz-Rodgers
2005 George Marvin Beeman
2004 H.A. “Dave” and Jean True Family
2003 William J. (Bill) Hybl
2002 Albert C. Yates
2001 Ned and Mary Belle Grant Family
2000 Justice Byron White
1999 W.D. “Bill” Farr
1998 Daniel L. Ritchie
1997 Brownie and Thurman “Fum” McGraw
1996 Cliff Hansen
1995 Ben R. Houston
1994 Rollin D. Barnard
1993 Dick Cheney
E 1992 William K. Coors
1991 Kenneth W. Monfort
1990 Alan K. Simpson
1989 Gov. John and Ann Love
1988 No dinner held
1987 Charles C. Gates
1986 Nicholas Robert Petry
1985 William H. McNichols Jr.
1984 Allan and Gerald Phipps
1983 Pete Smythe
1982 Aksel Nielsen
1981 Ed H. Honnen
1980 Frank H. Ricketson Jr.
1979 Willard Simms
1978 Robert “Red” Fenwick
