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The Holter Research Foundation, Inc. was established in Helena, Montana, in 1947 as a private, non-profit scientific research organization "in an effort to help further science in the State of Montana and to assist the community in civic matters which could utilize its scientific facilities." Founder of the organization was Norman J. Holter, a physicist and member of a prominent Montana pioneer family.

Holter, grandson of Anton M. Holter and son of Norman B. Holter, was born in Helena on February 1, 1914. After attending public schools in Helena, he earned master's degrees in chemistry from the University of Southern California (1938) and physics from the University of California, Los Angeles (1940). During these years Holter also organized Applied Micro Sciences, a scientific photography business, and began working with Dr. Joseph A. Gengerelli of UCLA on nerve stimulation in frogs and brain stimulation in rats.

During World War II, Holter served as a senior physicist for the U.S. Navy's Bureau of Ships under Commander Roger Revelle conducting research into the behavior of ocean waves in preparation for wartime amphibious operations. After the war, in 1946, Holter headed a staff of oceanographic engineers at Bikini Atoll during Operation Crossroads, the first postwar atomic bomb tests, measuring wave actions and underwater disturbances caused by the explosions.

Because of demands of his family's business affairs, Holter returned to Helena in 1947. His decision to continue his research activities led to the formation of the Holter Research Foundation, with a laboratory originally located in the rear of the Holter Hardware Company building. From 1956 to 1971 the laboratory facilities were located in the Great Northern Railroad depot building on Neill Avenue in Helena. The foundation was initially funded by Holter and other members of his family, but in 1952 began to receive grants from the National Institutes of Health (NIH). The foundation was governed by a Board of Trustees including J.A. Gengerelli, Roger Revelle, Edmond G. Toomey, Walter Brutsch, and N.J. Holter.

In 1949 Wilford R. (Bill) Glasscock joined the Holter Research Foundation staff as associate physicist. Early scientific work done at the foundation included studies of water drops, development of equipment to measure heavy body water, brick thickness tests for the Anaconda Company, monitoring of seismic activity in Montana, construction of a Van de Graaff generator, etc. In addition, the foundation encouraged uranium prospecting and mining "for the good of the Montana mining industry, and to aid our national atomic raw materials program." The foundation conducted free analysis of rock samples brought in by the public to check for radioactivity and provided training in and repair service for Geiger counters. The Holter Research Foundation was the first organization in Montana to qualify to receive radioisotopes from the Atomic Energy Commission and in 1951 offered radioisotope techniques courses for physicians to introduce atomic medicine to the state. A major discovery by the foundation came in 1955 when atmospheric tests done in an effort to locate uranium sources revealed that radioactivity in the precipitation of Helena was caused by atomic bomb tests being conducted secretly in the Soviet Union. In addition, the foundation promoted scientific education for students and from 1969 to 1973 offered the Holter-O'Connell Scientific Prize in conjunction with Eddie O'Connell.

Holter continued his collaboration with Dr. Gengerelli in attempting to transmit biological information, primarily brain waves, by radio. Holter turned his attention from the brain to the heart because the heart's greater voltage made the electronics easier, and because heart disease was far more prevalent than cerebral disease. Holter's goal was "to broadcast by radio the more obvious electrophysiological phenomena occurring in humans so they could be free to do something besides lie quietly on a couch."

The first broadcast of a radioelectrocardiogram (RECG) came in 1949 and required 80 pounds of equipment, which Holter wore on his back while riding a stationary bicycle. However, the initial transmitter and receiver required that the subject remain in the general area of the laboratory, so a portable RECG receiver-recorder had to be developed. This device was similar in appearance to a briefcase and could be carried by the subject while recording every RECG in a given period. By using very thin magnetic recording tape, twenty four hours of RECG could be done on a reel five inches in diameter. The initial method of examining the voluminous records from the tape recordings developed by Holter was called Audio- Visual Superimposed ECG Presentation (AVSEP) and it made it possible to examine twenty-four hours of RECGs in twenty minutes with signals being presented visually on an oscilloscope and audibly through a speaker.

With the coming of transistors, radioelectrocardiography was made obsolete and it became possible for the amplifier, tape recorder, temperature-control circuits, motor speed control circuits, and batteries to be placed in a single unit small enough for a coat pocket or purse. As articles describing the foundation's invention of these devices began to appear in the professional literature, there was considerable demand from doctors and hospitals for the equipment. Holter finally selected the Del Mar Avionics Corporation of California to produce commercially what came to be known as the Holter Monitor Test. Further refinements of equipment led to the creation of a "minimonitor" in 1968 which was described by Holter as being the "size of a cigarette package." Commercial production of the Holter minimonitor AVSEP, Jr. began in 1969. Production of equipment developed at the Holter Research Foundation represented a new segment of the medical electronics industry with an estimated international market in 1980 of several hundred million dollars.

Other members of the foundation's staff included Dr. F.M. Schemm, a Great Falls physician who served as medical consultant; Dr. John Gilson, also of Great Falls, who collaborated on the foundation's cardiology project; and David Squires, laboratory assistant and research associate who consulted with Del Mar Avionics during the production of the Holter electrocardiography system. Other laboratory assistants through the years included Frank Theobald, Karl E. Hase, Reynold A. Shunk, and Louise Marie Lakner. Long-time secretary for the foundation was Anna Johnson.

Bill Glasscock resigned from the foundation in June 1968 to pursue a career with the U.S. State Department. Then in 1969, because of the increased amount of required paper work and red tape, Holter cancelled the grant funding the foundation had been receiving from NIH. He was also in constant conflict with the Internal Revenue Service over the foundation's non-profit status, rights to patents, commercial production of equipment, etc. The foundation continued to maintain a laboratory and conduct varied scientific work, but on a much smaller scale. The Holter Research Foundation, Inc. was dissolved in 1985.

In addition to directing the foundation and conducting the family's businesses, Norman J. Holter was also active in many science related groups and activities. In the fall of 1952, he was selected to be the chief scientist for the Scripps Oceanographic Institution's (University of California San Diego) expedition called Operation Capricorn and group leader of Operation Ivy which conducted the first hydrogen bomb test in Eniwetok Atoll. Holter served for many years as a consultant in biophysics for the Veteran Administration's Fort Harrison Hospital in Helena and as a member of the board of trustees for the city's St. Peter's Hospital where he worked for the establishment of nuclear medicine facilities. In 1954 he joined with nine others in the Northwest to found the Society of Nuclear Medicine which was to bring physicians and physicists together in a new medical-scientific group. Holter served as treasurer and, in 1957, as president for SNM. He was an advisor on radiological defense to governors of Montana from 1949 to 1963, and in this capacity represented the state as an observer at the March 1953 atomic bomb test in Yucca Flats, Nevada, during Operation Doorstep and at another series of tests in May 1955 during Operation Cue. In 1963 Holter was appointed to the Montana Civil Defense Advisory Council where he advocated construction of home bomb shelters. Holter was appointed by Governor Tim Babcock to the Montana Space Council in 1963, and was invited to attend several space shots.

Holter received a number of awards during his long scientific career including an honorary membership to the Montana Medical Association, the 1979 Harold Laufman Award of the Association for the Advancement of Medical Instrumentation, and an honorary doctor of science degree from Montana State University in 1964.

In July 1964 Holter returned to UCSD as a "Specialist in Physics" with the rank of full professor for the Institute of Geophysics and Planetary Physics (IGPP). Shortly thereafter he was promoted to the position of assistant chancellor for the university and was involved in administrative planning and organization. Holter resigned from the university because of health problems in June 1966. Since his college days, Holter had maintained a home and office in California, primarily in the La Jolla area. Always interested in photography and art, he served as a director for the La Jolla Museum of Art for many years. He was also an artist himself and some of his pieces created from sheets of polished steel shaped by explosives were shown at the Montana Historical Society in an exhibit entitled "Geometry in Steel."

Holter was married to Eleanor Wheeler in 1941 and the couple had two children, Troy and Marian. Holter married Joan Treacy in 1952 and two sons were born, John and Anton Jefferis. Holter had two heart attacks (1974 and 1979) and suffered a number of years from cancer. Norman J. Holter died on July 21, 1983.