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. ) , image_skyline = , image_caption = Clockwise from top left: the Washington Monument and Lincoln Memorial on the National Mall, United States Capitol, Logan Circle, Jefferson Memorial, White House, Adams Morgan, ...

, area. These included

The Source ''The Source'' is an American hip hop and entertainment website, and a magazine that publishes annually or . It is the world's longest-running rap periodical, being founded as a newsletter in 1988 by Jonathan Shecter. David Mays was the ma ...

, an early

online service An online service provider (OSP) can, for example, be an Internet service provider, an email provider, a news provider (press), an entertainment provider (music, movies), a search engine, an e-commerce site, an online banking site, a health site, ...

and CompuServe competitor, and

Control Video Corporation AOL (stylized as Aol., formerly a company known as AOL Inc. and originally known as America Online) is an American web portal and online service provider based in New York City. It is a brand marketed by the current incarnation of Yahoo! Inc. ...

, a predecessor company to AOL.

Early years

William Ferdinand von Meister was born of noble German descent on February 21, 1942 in

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the most densely populated major city in the Un ...

, to F. W. von Meister and Eleanora Colloredo-Mannsfeld. His father, F. W. von Meister, was the godson of

Kaiser Wilhelm II , house = Hohenzollern , father = Frederick III, German Emperor , mother = Victoria, Princess Royal , religion = Lutheranism (Prussian United) , signature = Wilhelm II, German Emperor Signature-.svg Wilhelm II (Friedrich Wilhelm Viktor ...

, and his mother was a

countess Count (feminine: countess) is a historical title of nobility in certain European countries, varying in relative status, generally of middling rank in the hierarchy of nobility. Pine, L. G. ''Titles: How the King Became His Majesty''. New York: ...

. William von Meister attended

high school A secondary school describes an institution that provides secondary education and also usually includes the building where this takes place. Some secondary schools provide both '' lower secondary education'' (ages 11 to 14) and ''upper seconda ...

at Middlesex Academy in Massachusetts, and a finishing school in Switzerland. He then attended

Georgetown University Georgetown University is a private university, private research university in the Georgetown (Washington, D.C.), Georgetown neighborhood of Washington, D.C. Founded by Bishop John Carroll (archbishop of Baltimore), John Carroll in 1789 as Georg ...

. Though he never completed his undergraduate education, he persuaded nearby American University to enroll him in its master's program for business.

Career

After leaving Georgetown in 1973, von Meister started a wholesale liquor company, but found it "boring" and decided to move into consulting. After creating a database for Litton Bionetics, he was hired by

Western Union The Western Union Company is an American multinational financial services company, headquartered in Denver, Colorado. Founded in 1851 as the New York and Mississippi Valley Printing Telegraph Company in Rochester, New York, the company cha ...

to create a computerized billing system. In 1978, Meister founded

, the first popular online services company. The Source was eventually sold to

Reader's Digest ''Reader's Digest'' is an American general-interest family magazine, published ten times a year. Formerly based in Chappaqua, New York, it is now headquartered in midtown Manhattan. The magazine was founded in 1922 by DeWitt Wallace and his wif ...

and later acquired by rivals CompuServe. In 1983,

was founded by Meister. The company originally ran the

GameLine GameLine was a dialup game distribution service for the Atari 2600, developed and operated by Control Video Corporation (CVC). Subscribers could install the proprietary modem and storage cartridge in their home game console, accessing the GameLi ...

dial-up service for the

Atari 2600 The Atari 2600, initially branded as the Atari Video Computer System (Atari VCS) from its release until November 1982, is a home video game console developed and produced by Atari, Inc. Released in September 1977, it popularized microprocesso ...

, which Meister claimed to be able to handle up to 100,000 users.

Personal life and death

Meister has at least one brother, Peter. Bill von Meister died of cancer in

Great Falls, Virginia Great Falls is a census-designated place (CDP) in Fairfax County, Virginia, United States. The population as of the 2010 census was 15,427, an increase of 80.5% from the 2000 census. History Colonial farm settlements began to form in the area a ...

, at the age of 53, leaving behind his son, Frederick William von Meister. Frederick passed away in 2004, leaving behind a son, Maximilian.

Titles

As a descendent of

Prussian nobility 01 or '01 may refer to: * The year 2001, or any year ending with 01 * The month of January * 1 (number) Music * 01'' (Richard Müller album), 2001 * ''01'' (Son of Dave album), 2000 * ''01'' (Urban Zakapa album), 2011 * ''O1'' (Hiroyuki Sawano ...

, William had the honour of carrying von in his last name.

References

Bibliography

* * *

External links

The Story of a Pathological Entrepreneur

of William von Meister at the ''Luyken Family Association'' {{DEFAULTSORT:Von Meister, William 1942 births 1995 deaths Deaths from cancer in Virginia People from Great Falls, Virginia American Internet company founders 20th-century American businesspeople Middlesex School alumni Businesspeople from Virginia Businesspeople from New York City American people of German descent