Bjorn Kjellstrom; Sportsman, Compass Maker

Bjorn Kjellstrom, 84, an inventor of a user-friendly compass who introduced the sport of orienteering to North America. Kjellstrom, who had lived in Pound Ridge, N.Y., since the 1950s, founded Silva Sweden, a leading compass maker. Its U.S. division, Silva Inc., was founded in 1946, the same year Kjellstrom introduced “orienteering” in North America to promote his new invention. In the 1930s in Sweden, Kjellstrom, his brother Alvar and their friend Gunnar Tillander were active in orienteering, a sport that involves running or skiing through unmarked woods with the aid of a map, a compass and a protractor. In 1932, the three patented an easy-to-read compass, in which they attached a protractor to the directional needle, in a liquid-filled case. In 1935, Kjellstrom became a Swedish relay champion in orienteering on foot and in 1936 in relay ski orienteering. He was vice president of the International Ski Federation from 1950 to 1979 and was involved in founding the U.S. Orienteering Federation in 1971. Kjellstrom published several books on orienteering, including, “Be Expert With Map and Compass.” On Aug. 26 in Stockholm of complications of Parkinson’s disease.