We are saying goodbye to Kitty Ressler who passed away on July 9, 2020. Kitty had fought a long, hard, and courageous battle with early onset dementia while being supported by her family and many friends.Â
The youngest of four children, Kitty was born in February 1953 in Paso Robles to Paul and Betty Lou Ressler. She spent her early years here on the family almond orchard northwest of the Georgia Brown School with brothers Mike and Tim and older sister Pat. Kitty attended local schools, graduating in 1971 from Paso Robles High School. She then enrolled in Harvey Mudd College in Claremont, CA, where she earned her BS degree in Mathematics, graduating in 1975.
Kitty accepted an engineering position in Washington, D.C. with the Naval Electronics Systems Command, where she helped set up and manage Navy communications stations around the world.
She returned to California in the early ‘80s, joining GTE Government Systems, Mountain View as a project engineer, ultimately rising to become the Director of Intelligence Warfare Systems. It was in this period, 1992, where Kitty met and fell in love with her future husband, Doug Jones, whom she married in 1994.
She departed GTE in 1997 and joined the startup company Snap Track, Inc. developing the E-911 mobile cellular handset GPS location system used by most cellular companies worldwide. Snap Track was purchased by Qualcomm in 2000. At her retirement from Qualcomm in 2007, Kitty was concurrently the CEO of the independent Snap Track division and a Qualcomm vice president.
In retirement, she followed her lifetime love of animals by joining the Board of Directors of the North County Humane Society as the organization treasurer and continued in that capacity until NCHS merged with Woods Humane Society in 2017.
She and Doug lived in Los Gatos but purchased property in Dover Canyon, west of Paso Robles, in 1999 with intent to finally retire and settle back in her hometown.
Despite the demands of her work schedules, Kitty’s presence at every family event over the years demonstrated her commitment to and love for family. She is survived by her husband Doug Jones of Los Gatos and Paso Robles, brothers Tim (and wife Linda) of Paso Robles, Mike (and wife Carole) of Lacey, WA, and several nieces and nephews. She was predeceased by her parents, Paul and Betty Lou Ressler and by her older sister, Pat Tigges.Â
In lieu of flowers, please donate to the Woods Humane Society of San Luis Obispo County by visiting woodshumanesociety.org.
