Thomas Lee Kistner's Obituary
Thomas Lee Kistner was born on October 12, 1938 in Louisville, Kentucky, to Estill and Rebecca Kistner. Their family moved to San Antonio in 1952, during his freshman year of high school, where he will eventually meet the love of his life, Barbara Gayle Finnegan four years later. They married in 1960, had 4 loving children, and were eventually blessed with 14 grandchildren, and as of this writing, 14 great grandchildren. Thomas Kistner graduated from St. Mary’s University in 1960, was commissioned into the Army Reserve., and was teaching at Peacock Military Academy after his marriage to Barbara. The family moved and grew often as Thomas was transferred, trained, and deployed. Lisa Ann was born in 1961, just before the family transferred to Ft. Sill, Oklahoma, where Thomas attended artillery school. Later in 1961, the family moved to Germany, where Daniel Thomas was born in 1963 and Michael Patrick was born in 1964. A few months later, still in 1964, the family transferred to Ft. Lewis, Washington. Thomas was deployed to Vietnam in August 1965 for the first of two tours in that conflict. There he served in the 3rd Battalion, 18th Artillery Battery with the 1st Cavalry Division Air Mobile. He returned home in September 1966, when the family moved back to Ft. Sill for graduate training in artillery. Later in 1967, the family transferred to Virginia, and Thomas worked in intelligence in the Pentagon. It was here that Thomas and Barbara had their fourth child, Tracey Gayle in 1968. From Virginia, the family transferred to Hawaii through 1969, and moved for the first time to Ft. Bliss, Texas (El Paso) in January, 1970. Here, Thomas went to language school to learn Vietnamese, which he used on his second deployment to Vietnam. Thomas served with a South Vietnamese unit as a training and intelligence officer. He returned home in March of 1971. In 1975, the family transferred to Ft. Leavenworth, Kansas, where Thomas attended the Command and General Staff College. In 1975, the family went to Indiana, Pennsylvania, where Thomas taught history and military studies at Indiana University of Pennsylvania. The family then returned to Ft. Bliss in 1978. Thomas ended his military career in Texas, serving as the last aide de camp to General of the Army Omar Nelson Bradley. He then served as the Executive Officer for McGregor Range, attaining the rank of Lieutenant Colonel. He had served his country proudly for twenty years. After retiring from the U.S. Army, Thomas worked for the Southland Corporation for 16 years as a Certified Purchasing Manager. He retired from Southland in 1997. He founded Thermal Angel in 1997, a company that manufactured a portable medical IV warmer. In 2000, Thomas retired from working to become caretaker of his mother-in-law, Gayle Finnegan. Thomas witnessed a changing world during his 77 years. He was born into a world that was threatened by fascism, and he spent his early years in a world at war. When he was 7 years old, he witnessed his country triumph in the Second World War. He also, however, saw his country enter into the defining era of his life, the Cold War. Because of the competition between the US and the Soviet Union, Thomas would be deployed to Germany and Vietnam. Fortunately, he was able to see the fall of communism in Eastern Europe in the 1990s, but like all of us, in 2001 Thomas was deeply moved by the events of 9/11, and the subsequent war of terror. More positively, he also witnessed the development of a multitude of other world-changing inventions during his remarkable lifetime. In the 1940s, he saw Morton’s Salt, aerosol cans, the turbo prop, the slinky, the Mark I computer, the first electric digital computer, Elmer’s Glue, long-playing records, the transistor, silly putty, and the atomic bomb. In the 1950s, he was around for the invention of the electric guitar, superglue, Mr. Potato Head, radial tires, the solar cell, microwave ovens, videotape recorders, AA batteries, snowmobiles, and the pacemaker. In the 1960s, he enjoyed the halogen lamp, non-dairy creamer, the audio cassette, the touch-tone telephone, Astroturf, Star Trek, the hand-held calculator, the invention of zip codes, and he witnessed a man walking on the moon. In the 1980s, Thomas watched the world develop a hepatitis vaccine, personal computers, human growth hormones, CD-Rom, super conductors, Doppler radar, cel phones, and HD TV. In the 1990s, Thomas was introduced to the worldwide web, the Chunnel, Beanie Babies, the DVD, and Google. In the 2000s, he saw the hybrid car, the flash drive, the iPod, the Segway, camera phones, iTunes, DVR, YouTube, Facebook and the iPhone. In his last years, he was able to see the invention of the iPad, the driverless car, 3D TV, and the electric eye. Thomas was a spiritual man, and placed a great deal of faith in the Lord. He was a proud man, and it was from him that his children and grandchildren learned a sense of honor and responsibility. He loved his children, grandchildren, and great grandchildren fiercely. As a father, he was very proud of the accomplishments of his sons and daughters. He was loved and respected by all of those who were blessed to meet him and to know him. The world will be less without him. He will be missed. The visitation for Thomas Kistner will be held from 6:00 to 8:00 PM, Friday, May 27, 2016 at Restland Funeral Home. A graveside service for Thomas will be held at 11:00 AM, Saturday, May 28, 2016 at Restland Memorial Park. Memorial Service will be held on Saturday, May 28, 2016 at 2 PM at Town North Presbyterian Church, 1776 N. Plano Rd., Richardson, TX. 75081. Funeral arrangements have been entrusted to Restland Funeral Home and Memorial Park, 13005 Greenville Avenue, at Restland Road, Dallas, TX 75243. Memorials may be made to Parkinson’s Research.
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