Herbert Donald Kistler ’30

Doc Kistler left us Dec. 29, 2008, his centennial year. The end of his long and useful life was clouded by dementia.

Born in Montana, Doc went east to Exeter and had a distinguished athletic career. He described himself as an “honor man, second group for two years, member of the Two-Foot Club and Tiger Inn,” while at Princeton. He roomed at 2 Blair with Holmes Bannard and Peck Euwer.

After graduation and a trip through the Panama Canal as deckhand on a copper freighter, Doc earned a law degree at Stanford. The Great Depression sent him to Washington for “insolvent bank work (no future)” and marriage to Phyllis Belangie. They had two children, Margaret and Herbert.  

Doc practiced probate and estate law, becoming a fellow of the American College of Probate Counsel. In Chevy Chase, Md., where the Kistlers lived, he was a 14-year member of the Board of Managers, with the honorary title of “mayor” for five years.

Phyllis died in 1952, and in 1965 Doc married Melva R. Booth, gaining two stepchildren. Retirement found him playing golf while Melva concentrated on real estate.  

To Melva, the four children, three grandchildren, and three great-grandchildren, the class sends sincere sympathy.