Samuel Glazer, a co-founder of the company that gave the world Mr. Coffee, one of the first and most popular automatic drip coffee makers to appear on American kitchen counters, died on March 12 in Cleveland. He was 89.

The cause was complications of leukemia, his wife, Jeanne, said.

Before Mr. Glazer and Vincent Marotta came up with the idea, the two most common ways to make a cup of coffee at home were to percolate it (smells good but can taste bitter) or to stir instant coffee in boiled water (not as good as brewed).

Good friends since high school, the two men had been partners in a series of businesses for more than 20 years, particularly real estate development, when they bought a coffee delivery company serving the Cleveland area in the late 1960s. On the delivery trucks were bulky, stainless steel commercial coffee dispensers. “Can we get one of these for the house?” customers would ask, Mr. Glazer’s son, Robert, said in an interview.