Heritage Foundation Leadership for America

Our nation lost a great citizen with the passing of an old friend and true conservative -- Joseph Coors.

Most businessmen are content to contribute to a candidate or an organization, and leave it at that. But not Joseph Coors, who believed strongly that his responsibility didn't end with the mailing of a check.

When the entrepreneur became committed to an individual like Ronald Reagan or an institution like the Heritage Foundation, he did all he could -- and not just financially -- to help them further the conservative ideas they shared.

Joe Coors was one of the very first people from outside California to join Reagan's "kitchen cabinet" during the 1980 presidential campaign. It was only natural therefore that President-elect Reagan turned to Joe for recommendations for his Cabinet, but that was not all. I can attest that after the inauguration, Joe volunteered to personally assist in the vetting of sub-cabinet appointments.

As counselor to the president, I frequently talked with Joe and came to look upon him as a conservative conscience, as someone who would keep reminding us of why we had come to Washington, D.C. Joe always wanted to be sure that
the administration stayed true to the conservative principles on which Ronald Reagan had run for office.

Joe Coors' single greatest contribution, I believe, was as a member of a small group that brought the nuclear physicist Edward Teller (whom Joe personally knew) to Washington to help launch what became known as the Strategic Defense Initiative (SDI). What they did -- and it was critical to the initiative -- was to provide the technical validation of Ronald Reagan's long-held idea of an anti-ballistic missile defense system.

Teller's 1982 meeting with President Reagan was a pivotal event in SDI's development. And as we later learned, SDI was paramount in persuading the Soviets they could not win an arms race and set in motion the events that led ultimately to a peaceful conclusion of the Cold War.

When President Reagan nominated me to become attorney general of the United States, many conservatives thought that Joe Coors should take my place as counselor to the president. Although Joe was not interested in a formal post, he continued to give the president and others in the administration the benefit of his sage advice.

Joe was a passionate believer in the free enterprise system. He wanted to preserve for all Americans the kind of opportunity that he and his family, going back three generations, had enjoyed. That was why he was so concerned about over-regulation and a too strong national government that acted beyond its constitutionally granted powers.

Joe Coors never sought publicity for his many political and public policy accomplishments, preferring to work quietly in the background.

But when you add up all that he did -- serving as a member of President Reagan's kitchen cabinet, funding an unknown think tank named the Heritage Foundation, helping to bring Teller and the president together to discuss missile defense -- it is obvious he was extraordinarily effective in facilitating the implementation of his beliefs.

Joe Coors was a good and loyal friend to many, high and low. He was tall and quiet and plain spoken, with a dry sense of humor that he used to leaven his sound advice. He was a true patriot who spent his whole life seeking to preserve the best of America for us and those who will succeed us.


This piece originally appeared in the San Diego Union-Tribune, March 22, 2003.

- Edwin Meese, a former U.S. attorney general, is the Ronald Reagan distinguished fellow in public policy at The Heritage Foundation (www.heritage.org ).