ALFRED PEET, 87 Coffee shop owner

Alfred Peet, a pioneer of American coffee culture, died Wednesday in Ashland, Ore.

Mr. Peet opened the first of Peet's Coffee & Tea stores in 1966 in Berkeley, Calif.

The corner store serving brews from high-altitude beans grown in Costa Rica, Guatemala and East Africa "quickly became a gathering place for UC Berkeley grads, undergrads and faculty, as well as local intellectuals, radicals, writers, musicians, artisans and any number of the colorful people who still make up Berkeley today," the company said.

After opening more stores and playing an advisory role in the early days of the coffee giant Starbucks, Mr. Peet retired in 1983.