Joseph Coors, who helped build his grandfather's small local brewery into the nation's third-largest and used his brewery fortune to help finance President Ronald Reagan's political career, has died at his southern California home, at the age of 85, after a three-month battle with lymphatic cancer.

"Without Joe Coors the Heritage Foundation wouldn't exist and the conservative movement it nurtures would be immeasurably poorer," Edwin Feulner, Heritage Foundation president, said in a statement. "Joe is gone now, no doubt having a beer with his pals who have been waiting for him in heaven,” he added.

He earned a bachelor's degree in chemistry and master's degree in chemical engineering from Cornell University and worked briefly for DuPont before formally joining Coors in 1946 as technical director of the Coors Porcelain Company.

During his 41 years with the company Coors and his brother Bill helped expand Adolph Coors from a small brewery producing 300,000 barrels a year to a national enterprise producing more than 20 million barrels a year.

19 March, 2003