Philip Henry McCrory Jr., pharmacist and coffee entrepreneur, dies at 65
August 23, 2010 Times Picayune
Submitted by N.O.V.A.


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Philip Henry McCrory Jr., who was not only the director of the state's pharmacy but also an entrepreneur who
developed a thriving business selling chilled coffee concentrate, died Wednesday of cancer at his Metairie
home. He was 65.

A native New Orleanian, Mr. McCrory earned a bachelor's degree in pharmacy at Northeast Louisiana
University, now the University of Louisiana at Monroe. In 1975, he became the first pharmacist hired as
director of pharmacy services in the state Office of Public Health. He held that job until the week before
he died, said Leah Michael, the assistant director.

The office provides prescriptions to about 90 public health units and clinics around the state. Before Mr.
McCrory was hired to coordinate the process at the state level, "they would just give (prescriptions) out
with no rhyme or reason," Michael said.

Mr. McCrory also was the state's coordinator of the federal government's strategic national stockpile of
pharmaceutical products, which are designed to be sent out in an emergency when a state committee requests
them.

This inventory was tapped in the wake of Hurricane Katrina, Michael said, and Mr. McCrory was responsible
for managing the distribution.

On the job and off, Mr. McCrory enjoyed a good cup of coffee, and he made cold-drip concentrate in the
family kitchen, said Gregory McCrory, one of his sons.

Because his friends liked the coffee made from the concentrate, Mr. McCrory started thinking about selling
it, his son said. After first making it in a back room of his house, Mr. McCrory rented a place from his
brother Dennis where he could set up the machinery and bottle the results. He landed his first account,
Dorignac's Food Center, in 1987.

The company was originally called Coffee Extractors of New Orleans, but it was reborn in 1989 as New Orleans
Coffee Co.
Its product, CoolBrew Coffee, comes in seven flavors. About 6,000 bottles are produced each week, Gregory
McCrory said, and they are sold in the New Orleans area, Baton Rouge,
Lafayette and as far east as Pensacola, Fla.

In 2000, the company moved into a Mid-City building, which took a pounding from Hurricane Katrina and the
subsequent floods. It was closed for six months, Gregory McCrory said, "but Katrina set us back five years."

The CoolBrew Coffee plastic bottle includes a small container at the top into which a coffee drinker
squeezes the concentrate. After Katrina, the company added a fleur-de-lis to that part of the bottle.

Even though CoolBrew Coffee can be used in making iced coffee, Mr. McCrory liked his coffee hot and black,
his son said.
Mr. McCrory, who installed solar panels on the family home, received an award in 2004 from Mayor Marc Morial
for "creative reduction of energy and waste while producing a quality product," according to the citation.

Last year, in recognition of his work in the Office of Public Health, he received the Charles E. Dunbar Jr.
Career Service Award from the Louisiana Civil Service League.

In addition to Gregory McCrory, survivors include his wife, Colette Connor McCrory; two more sons, Douglas
McCrory of Atlanta and Jeffrey McCrory; two brothers, Dennis Paul McCrory of Baton Rouge and Gerald Lindon
McCrory; six grandchildren; and a great-grandchild.

A Mass will be said Saturday at 1 p.m. at St. Angela Merici Church, 835 Melody Drive, Metairie. Visitation
will start at 10 a.m. Burial will be private.

Lake Lawn Metairie Funeral Home is in charge of arrangements.