Betty A. Neisler

Daughter, Sister, Mother, Grandmother, and Leader of Men—Betty A. Neisler passed from this world on January 23, 2023. She was eighty-eight years of age. Betty was at home, surrounded by her two surviving children, John and Jenny, her cherished friend and caretaker, Tonia, and her four-legged friends, Rosita y Niño.

Betty was born to parents James Harvey and Marie Robinson on August 19th, 1934 at Grady Memorial Hospital in Atlanta, GA. She was the eldest of five siblings. The lessons that she learned in those early years would serve her throughout the course of her life as the Founder, Owner, and CEO of multiple companies. Even after decades of challenges faced and goals surpassed, Betty always attributed her success to the principles that she had been taught by her father and the great kindness and compassion of her mother.

After graduating from South Fulton High School, Betty would quickly marry the love of her life, Harvey C. Neisler (“Red”), in 1952. Soon after marrying, they were blessed with three children—two sons and one daughter. Theirs was a union that would go on to last for over fifty years—up until Red’s death in 2004. Betty knew without a doubt that she had married, “the greatest man God ever put on this earth”.

After the birth of her children, Betty’s real journey began. Her father had once told her, “You’ll never get rich working for the other guy.” She took his lesson to heart. She convinced the owner of the ice cream company where she worked to become a partial investor in a business of her own creation. She was going to start an answering service—Winston Services. It was 1962, and Betty would never work for anyone other than herself again.

The early years of her company came with many challenges. She was still raising three children. She held a large amount of debt with her former employer and business partner. For months, she sat up each night with six phones on her desk, answering and relaying every single call that came through her lines. She didn’t have the advantage of a degree in business. She was learning every day on the job. As a woman in the 1960’s she wasn’t the type of person that her fellow business owners were accustomed to dealing with, and help from her business community was scarce. Trade organizations didn’t want her. She had to take her husband to the bank with her to sign on any business loans. In 1972, Betty was devastated by the unexpected loss of her firstborn son, Kurt Neisler. This loss was her greatest challenge yet, but Betty was resilient. She was unbelievably tough. She did what she had to do and threw herself back into her work.

Eventually, she added a paging service and formed a complementary sister company known as Dial Paging. In 1978 she sold those two companies for enough money to retire down to Florida for the rest of her life—but retirement did not suit Betty very well. By 1986, she was back. She purchased a small answering service that was on its last legs and started Telemed, Inc. It was a specialized answering service designed specifically for the medical community. By the time that Betty finally hung up her gloves and sold TeleMed in 2019, she was employing over three hundred full time personnel in call centers across three states, and her company TeleMed was providing emergency answering services for entire hospital systems across the nation.

Telecommunications technologies are constantly undergoing immense and rapid change: switch boards become pagers—become cellular phones—become smart phones. Betty always adapted. When it was necessary, Betty was willing to burn it all down and start from scratch in order to achieve the goals that she had set for herself. She knew what she wanted, and her goals never wavered. For over sixty years, she worked harder than anyone else in the building. Her success is a direct product of the determination and perseverance that drove her throughout her entire life.

Betty brought the vigorous tenacity that she showed in business to the people around her: her family, her friends, and her colleagues. If you came to Betty with a personal problem, she would stop at nothing to figure out a way to help you to help yourself. She cared deeply, and she was always willing to provide the helping hand to the people around her. She knew the power of believing in herself, and she extended that power to every person with whom she interacted. She believed in people.

In her later years, Betty loved nothing more than her family and traveling the world: trips to St. George Island with her family—the 80’s club, road trips across the lower-48 with her friends “4-broads, 8-paws”, and journeys abroad with her children and grandchildren. When she finally finished working and sat down to rest, she became a voracious reader of audiobooks. She liked reading the longest books that she could find for her audible credits. Just as she had been in business, Betty was always looking for a deal.

Betty was preceded in death by her parents James Harvey and Marie Robinson, her husband Harvey C. Neisler, her son Kurt Neisler, and her sisters Ruth Neisler and Joyce Cline. Betty is survived by her children John H. Neisler, Jenny M. Kimbrell (Jeff); her grandchildren John W. Kimbrell (Sarah), Alexandra E. Neisler; her siblings Harvey Robinson (Sally), Calvin Robinson (Linda); and many beloved nieces, nephews, cousins, and in-laws.

A special thanks to her friend and caregiver, Tonia, who was a wonderful comfort to Betty and her entire family.

A memorial service will be held at H.M. Patterson and Son, Arlington Chapel (173 Allen Rd. NE, Sandy Springs, GA 30328) on Thursday, February 2nd at 2:00pm. The family will receive guests for a visitation prior to the service, beginning at 1:00pm.

In lieu of flowers, donations can be made to Miles for Cystic Fibrosis (milesforcf.org), the Charles B. Staats Memorial Foundation (cbsmf.org), or The Galloway School (gallowayschool.org)

In honor of her memory, believe in yourself.