Bishop, C. Franklin (1918-2000)

Mennonite Weekly Review obituary: 2 Nov 2000 p. 7

Birth date: 1918

text of obituary:

Goshen biology prof., tree expert dies at 82

By Ryan Miller

C. Franklin Bishop tends plants in the former Goshen College greenhouse.

GOSHEN, Ind. — From his childhood on a Doylestown, Pa., farm to lectures in Witmer Woods or the warm waters of the Florida Keys, C. Franklin Bishop carried on a near-constant conversation with nature.

During his 39-year tenure as Goshen College professor of biology, Bishop gave thousands of students a window into the magic of the natural world. Even after his 1985 retirement, his many insights into God's creation continued to enrich students of all ages on and off campus until his death oct. 29 after a six-month battle with cancer. He was 82.

The college is establishing a C. Franklin Bishop Scholarship to benefit students in the natural sciences. President Shirley H. Showalter said Bishop "dedicated his life to examining and encouraging growth -- from the flora and fauna of his biological expertise to the fertile minds of the students he enlightened and challenged. He will be missed, as a professor and a friend."

Born June 29, 1918, Bishop grew up on a farm in Bucks County, Pa. Enrolling at Goshen in 1936, he planted his boots in the footprints of biology professor S.W. Witmer.

"I tried to make students feel the same way about the world around them as the way [Witmer] made me feel," Bishop said.

He graduated from Goshen in 1940 and sandwiched master's and doctorate degrees from West Virginia University around an April 25, 1943, wedding to Suzanne Harnish, a 1943 Goshen graduate. He was a specialist in plant pathology and entomology at WVU until he accepted a teaching position at Goshen in 1956.

Professor of biology Stan Grove, who was Bishop's student before he became a colleague, said Bishop was "a very personable, warm person that many students responded to in wonderful ways. . . . He spoke about his Christian faith, and it was clear that was what he was all about. As a Christian and a professor he was a terrific role model for many of us."

Bishop chaired Goshen's natural science, biology and agricultural studies departments and continued teaching until 1999, 14 years after his official retirement.

At Goshen's marine biology laboratory in the Florida Keys, Bishop established a key for identifying 235 different marine algae.

In 1967 he traveled around the world for a Mennonite Central Committee/Mennonite Board of Missions project dedicated to gaining perspectives into world hunger. His experiences, both in areas of wealth and hunger, became a 1968 Herald Press pamphlet, World Hunger: Reality and Challenge.

From 1963 to 1983 Bishop directed an agricultural project in Haiti funded by the Hesston (Kan.) Foundation. MCC supported his research efforts in tropical agriculture in Colombia, Peru, Bolivia and Brazil in 1976.

Bishop published more than 200 articles and became recognized as the tree expert of Goshen, "the Maple City." In 1995 he and six students catalogued every tree in the public right of way in the city of Goshen -- nearly 6,500 in all, more than 70 percent of them maples.

The Bishops have four sons, David, John, Lawrence and Bruce, all of whom attended Goshen College.

Mennonite Weekly Review obituary: 30 Nov 2000 p. 12

text of obituary:

INDIANA

GOSHEN

East Goshen Menn. Church

. . .

Franklin Bishop died Oct. 29

. . .

-- Roy S. Koch