Pioneer Information
Born in Alexander City, Alabama, Bishop received a B.L.A. from Auburn University in 1951. He worked for the Auburn Planning Board before moving to Houston to work for Ralph Ellis Gunn. Soon thereafter, he formed Bishop and Walker, Landscape Architects – Planners with Robert Walker, a fellow Auburn graduate. During their 31-year partnership, the firm designed the site plan for the Humble Oil and Refining Company (later Exxon) headquarters, the Bush Intercontinental Airport master planting plan, and the estate-scale grounds of the American Rose Society’s national headquarters near Shreveport, Louisiana.
While practicing in Houston, Bishop taught classes at the University of Houston and Louisiana State University. After leaving Bishop and Walker in 1984, he became an adjunct professor and interim chair of the Landscape Architecture department at Mississippi State University. Bishop retired from teaching in 1998. He played a key role in instituting registration requirements for landscape architects in the State of Texas, and he served in most executive-committee positions in the Southwest, Texas, and Mississippi Chapters of the American Society of Landscape Architects (ASLA). He was named a Fellow of the ASLA in 1978 and served as its national president in 1981 and 1982. Bishop passed away in Houston, Texas, at the age of 88.
