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William von Meister
William F. von Meister (February 21, 1942 – May 18, 1995) was an American entrepreneur who founded and participated in a number of startup ventures in the Washington, D.C., area. These included The Source, an early online service and CompuServe competitor, and Control Video Corporation, a predecessor to AOL.[1] Early yearsWilliam Ferdinand von Meister was born of noble German descent[2] on February 21, 1942, in New York City, to F. W. von Meister and Eleanora Colloredo-Mannsfeld.[3] His father, F. W. von Meister, was the godson of Kaiser Wilhelm II, and his mother was a countess.[4] Von Meister attended high school at Middlesex Academy in Massachusetts, and a finishing school in Switzerland. He then attended Georgetown University. Though he never completed his undergraduate education, he persuaded nearby American University to enroll him in its master's program for business.[4][5] CareerAfter leaving Georgetown in 1973, von Meister started a wholesale liquor company, but found it "boring" and decided to move into consulting.[6] After creating a database for Litton Bionetics, he was hired by Western Union to create a computerized billing system.[6] In 1978, von Meister founded The Source,[7] the first popular online services company. The Source was eventually sold to Reader's Digest and later acquired by rivals CompuServe.[8][7] In 1982, von Meister was working on a project called the Home Music Store, which was to be beamed by way of the Westar IV communications satellite to cable television companies all over the United States, who would then provide it to their subscribers. For a monthly service charge of less than $10 (including rental of the necessary decoder box) plus a per-album fee (normally a little more than half the list price of the record), subscribers would be able to receive, decode, and record a digitally encoded and transmitted copy of the album.[9] However, there is no evidence that the project ever came to fruition. In 1983, Control Video Corporation, the predecessor of America Online, was founded by von Meister. The company originally ran the GameLine dial-up service for the Atari 2600,[7] which Meister claimed to be able to handle up to 100,000 users.[10] Personal life and deathMeister has at least one brother, Peter.[4] Von Meister died of cancer in Great Falls, Virginia, at the age of 53,[8] leaving behind his son, Frederick William von Meister. TitlesAs a descendent of Prussian nobility, William had the honour of carrying von in his last name.[2] References
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