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Kistler Family papers
M2232
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Table of contents
Language of Material:
English
Contributing Institution:
Department of Special Collections and University Archives
Title: Kistler family papers
source:
Thompson, Sylvia
Identifier/Call Number: M2232
Physical Description:
15 Linear Feet
(28 boxes and two digital files)
Date (inclusive): circa 1940-2013
Abstract: This small archive consists mainly of information relating to Olga Ritso's family history, and Walter Kistler's scientific
work. It illustrates the interconnectivity between Estonia and the US in the twentieth century.
Open for research. Note that material must be requested at least 36 hours in advance of intended use. Audiovisual materials
are not available in original format, and must be reformatted to a digital use copy. Selected audiovisual material from this
collection has been digitized and is available via Searchworks.
Immediate Source of Acquisition
Gift of Sylvia Thompson; 2017-2022. Accession MSS 2017-162 & 2023-092.
Olga Ritso-Kistler was born Olga Ritso in Ukraine in 1920, where her Estonian father was a medical student, during the Russian
civil war. As Soviet power consolidated, the family's attempt to return with their two small children to Estonia via Moscow
was complicated. In 1922, her mother died of illness related to the Holodomor, the Ukraine famine. Her father was arrested
by the Bolsheviks, brought to Siberia, and would not be reunited with the family until 1932. The children managed to receive
safe passage to Estonia, and initially stayed with foster families.
Olga attended school in Tallinn, and later graduated from the University of Tartu's medical school. She fled in autumn 1944
to Germany, where she worked as an eye doctor and pediatrician in displaced persons camps. After immigrating to the US in
1949, she continued practicing medicine and in 1960 married prominent Swiss-born physicist and engineer Walter Kistler.
Walter P. Kistler was a physicist, inventor, and philanthropist. He was born in Biel, Switzerland, and was a life member of
the Swiss Physical Society and a member of AIAA and ISA, which presented him the Life Achievement Award in 2000. He held patents
on more than 50 inventions in the scientific and industrial instrumentation fields, and had published a number of papers in
scientific and trade journals.
Walter Kistler studied sciences at the University of Geneva and obtained a Master's Degree in Physics from the Federal Institute
of Technology in Zurich.
Mr. Kistler moved to the United States in 1951, and joined Bell Aerosystems in Buffalo, NY in 1952 . In 1957, Mr. Kistler
started his own company, Kistler Instrument Corporation.
In 1974, he founded with his partner Charles Morse the Kistler-Morse Corporation. Kistler supervised and designed a number
of innovations in sensors, and in 1982 he was named an ISA Fellow for his contributions in the field of sensor development.
Kistler also served as Chairman of Interpoint Corporation from 1974 to 1987. In 1985 he became the first investor and eventually
a Director of SPACEHAB, Inc., and entrepreneurial company that has since developed the word's first commercial space research
laboratories aboard the U.S. Space Shuttle. Mr. Kistler's life-long interest in space led him to co-founding Kistler Aerospace
Corporation in 1993 to design and build the world's first totally reusable space vehicle.
In his later life, Kistler acted as a chair to several high-tech startups. These companies include Kistler Products, SRS,
ICI, Interpoint, Paroscientific, and SPACEHAB, Inc. In 1993 he co-founded Kistler Aerospace Corporation, which was intended
to produce a reusable space vehicle.
In 1996 Kistler co-founded the Foundation For the Future. The Foundation's original stated goal was to "increase knowledge
about the factors that may have a major impact on the long-term future of humanity."
Kistler-Ritso kept a close eye on developments in Estonia, and visited family there in 1976. The freedom of 1990s brought
a chance for greater involvement, and the foundation for the Museum of Occupations was established in 1998. The mission of
the Kistler-Ritso Estonian Foundation was to build a museum reflecting Estonia's recent history. Dr. Kistler-Ritso initiated
and funded the Tallinn Museum of Occupations, completed in 2003, and dedicated to exhibitions and research into both the Soviet
and Nazi occupations. The museum was also the first purpose-built museum building in Estonia.
[identification of item], Kistler family papers (M2232). Department of Special Collections and University Archives, Stanford
Libraries, Stanford, California.
While Special Collections is the owner of the physical and digital items, permission to examine collection materials is not
an authorization to publish. These materials are made available for use in research, teaching, and private study. Any transmission
or reproduction beyond that allowed by fair use requires permission from the owners of rights, heir(s) or assigns.
Subjects and Indexing Terms
Estonia -- History -- 20th century
Thompson, Sylvia
Kistler, Walter, 1918-
Kistler, Olga Ritso, 1920-2013
Kistler-Ritso Eesti Sihtasutus
Eesti Okupatsioonide Muuseum