May 16, 1944 – Nov. 4, 2015

Kristin G. Knipler, of Amherst, a labor and delivery nurse at Buffalo General Medical Center, died Wednesday in Roswell Park Cancer Institute of complications from acute myeloid leukemia. She was 71.

Born in Buffalo, the former Kristin Olandt was a graduate of Kenmore West High School and the Deaconess Hospital School of Nursing. She also studied at the University at Buffalo.

Mrs. Knipler left a management position at Deaconess Hospital to join a picket line in a labor dispute and eventually became a member of the negotiating team that formed Nurses United. She served for several years as a Nurses United union representative.

She was selected to take part in a women’s health team in an exchange program in Tuzla, Bosnia, in which Buffalo-area doctors and nurses worked in a Tuzla hospital and Bosnian doctors and nurses came to Buffalo.

She also served as co-chairman of the regional chapter of the Association of Women’s Health, Obstetrics and Neonatal Nursing and made a presentation on her work in Bosnia at the group’s national convention.

After retiring in 2004, she worked in the fine china department at Macy’s in the Boulevard Mall.

Survivors include her husband of 49 years, John; a daughter, Molly Sue; a son, James J.; two brothers, Heino Olandt and Eric Olandt; and three grandchildren.

Services will be held at 11 a.m. Monday in Holy Trinity Lutheran Church, 1080 Main St