The “r” word doesn’t exist in Peter H. Coors’ vocabulary.

No, not “Republican” — that word still fits. We’re talking “retirement.”

Coors, 76, left the board as chairman of the Molson Coors Brewing Co. three years ago. Before that he chaired MillerCoors. Different company names after acquisitions, but it’s essentially the Adolph Coors Brewing Co. founded 150 years ago in Golden — three years before Colorado became a state. He remains a board member.

“I’m doing all I used to do, I’m just not getting paid,” Coors said with perfect deadpan delivery Friday.

He’s also still on the board of the National Western Authority as its chairman of the capital campaign.

For his entire life, Coors has been engrained in, and championed for, western heritage values and culture. He’s being awarded the Western Visionary Award from the National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum in Oklahoma City. On April 15, Coors will be only the third recipient of the award along with other award winners who are “top names in Western film, literature and music,” according to a news release.

The first two recipients were Foster Friess and Philip Anschutz.

“I’m just so humbled and honored,” Coors said. “It’s really an extraordinary thing, especially being only the third one to get it.”

“I can think of no one more deserving than Pete to receive this honor,” said Museum President and CEO Pat Fitzgerald. “From his work with the National Western Stock Show, to his lifelong stewardship of his family business, to his support of Western philanthropic efforts, Pete embodies the grit and ideals of the American West.”

Many Coloradans know Coors for his political career. He was the 2004 Republican nominee for Colorado’s U.S. Senate seat. He lost to Democrat Ken Salazar, but remains politically influential.

“My great-great-grandfather, great grandfather, grandfather and father grew up here. I’ve got a huge appreciation for the west,” Coors said. “It’s about the freedom to be able to work hard. It’s just what this country does. I mean Denver was basically built from nothing. Our story is not unique by any means.”

He marvels watching he and wife Marilyn’s six grandchildren and 15 great grandchildren putting on boots and hats to get ready to attend the Stock Show, just as he did as a boy seven decades ago.

“I was not big on horses, but I’d pet the cows and kick mud around,” he said. “It’s been and part of me my entire life. … I watch my grandkids learning the western way and it’s incredibly important to me.”

Coors takes pride in the momentum the National Western Stock Show, and Complex, are experiencing with the formation of the National Western Center Authority. It oversees the 10-year grounds redevelopment and 50-year partnership between the City of Denver, Colorado State University and Stock Show Authority.

Denver voters approved Referendum C in 2015 allowing a rental car tax used to build the Convention Center to go to the Authority. The $50 million project includes the CSU Campus, which just opened the third and final building Hydro.

The whole National Western Complex will be used for events, education, tourism and agricultural innovation — which will have spinoff benefits for the surrounding communities and the state’s farming and ranching industries.

“The momentum was going great until COVID, when we had to put the brakes on,” Coors said. “But the City is now ready to start building the new livestock center and we’re building a new legacy center. It will take a couple of years.”

Feedback from ranchers using the new stock yards, with heated water, has been glowing, he said.

“The cattle folks are just thrilled by what we’ve done,” Coors said. “There’s nothing like it anywhere in the nation. It’s created a lot of excitement.”

The 117th year of the National Western Stock show runs daily through Jan. 22, 4655 Humboldt St., Denver. For more information, schedules and tickets visit nationalwestern.com.

Editor’s note: Anschutz is the owner of Clarity Media, which operates the Denver Gazette.