Björn Kjellström

Björn Kjellström (born 1911, died 1995), originally from Sweden, was a ski orienteering champion in Sweden and co-founder of the compass manufacturing company Silva Sweden AB.

In 1932, he helped invent a compass for terrestrial navigation with liquid in the needle housing and a protractor built into the base.

Following World War II, he moved to the United States, where he founded the U.S. operations of The Silva Company (later Silva, Inc.). Kjellström also founded Silva Orienteering Services to provide training and company sponsorship for the sport in the U.S.

Kjellstrom's 1955 book, "Be Expert With Map and Compass" has sold more than 500,000 copies in English and has been translated into several languages. Later editions remained in print as of 2009.

He co-founded the United States Orienteering Federation in 1971 and served as vice president of the International Ski Federation from 1951 to 1979.

In later years, he had lived in Pound Ridge, N.Y., where he helped develop trails in a county park and forest reserve called Ward Pound Ridge Reservation and to produce a detailed orienteering map of the area.

Sources

Information derived from NYTimes obituary [1]