Wednesday, April 18, 2007
Jamie Bishop: He talked about 'changing the world with art'
Christopher "Jamie" Bishop
- Age: 35
- A tenure-track professor who earned bachelor's and master's degrees in German at the University of Georgia and was a Fulbright Scholar.
- Hometown: Pine Mountain, Ga.
- Parents: Michael & Jeri Bishop
- Blacksburg residence: a one-story house on Cranwell Circle just a short distance from campus.
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Jamie Bishop was thrilled to move to Blacksburg two years ago when Virginia Tech hired him to teach German.
"He was really excited about his job when he came up here," said Tim Mullins, a senior graphic designer for university relations at Radford University.
When he wasn’t teaching, Bishop spent much of his time creating science fiction art. It was passion he and Mullins shared, and they became friends after they met at a science fiction convention in North Carolina in 2002.
Bishop’s interest in the genre likely came from his father, Michael Bishop, an award-winning science fiction author.
Bishop had hoped to use his art for a greater cause.
"We used to meet at his place ... to talk about art and about changing the world with art," Alex Wilson, an actor and artist friend of Bishop’s, wrote on his blog Tuesday.
Wilson, 30, lives in Carrboro, N.C., where Bishop lived and worked as an academic technology liason at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill before moving to Blacksburg in 2005.
By all accounts, Bishop grew fond of the New River Valley quickly.
"He liked Carrboro, but I think he loved Blacksburg," Wilson wrote.
Other friends described Bishop as an outgoing teacher with a good sense of humor and a wealth of creative talents.
"He was extremely nice and open and compatible," said Amherst artist Daniel Trout, 54, who first met Bishop at a North Carolina art show four years ago. "He was just a very exuberant person about what he was doing."
Bishop and his wife, Stefanie Hofer, who is also on the German faculty at Virginia Tech, owned a home in Blacksburg not far from campus.
When he wasn’t teaching, Bishop spent much of his time taking photos, designing book jacket covers and creating science fiction and other multimedia designs that he displayed on his personal web site.
He worked meticulously on those projects.
"He wasn’t going to do something unless he could give it the time to do it right," Wilson wrote on his blog.
According to Wilson, Bishop had planned to apply for a masters degree program in photography and graphic design at Radford.
"He really liked doing his art," Mullins said. "I think it was more than a hobby to him. He was really passionate about it."
According to witnesses, Bishop was teaching an introductory course in German Monday when he was shot to death in his classroom in Norris Hall.
His friends are still trying to comprehend the tragic incident.
"I just got off the phone, and I can’t stop crying. One of my best friends, Jamie Bishop, has died," wrote Jason Lundberg on his blog Tuesday morning. "I can’t believe this has happened."
Bishop grew up in Pine Mountain, Ga., a small town south of Atlanta. He earned a bachelors degree in German studies in 1993 and a masters degrees in German linguistics in 1998 from the University of Georgia. He was a Fulbright Scholar at Christian-Albrechts-University in Kiel, Germany in 1993.
An avid hiker and Atlanta Braves baseball fan, Bishop also worked as a summer intern at the Pentagon in Washington D.C. in 1992.
Bishop spent four years on and off living in Germany, where he worked as a freelance translator, German tutor, and teacher of English in Heidelberg. At Virginia Tech, Bishop also taught classes in Web site development and other computer and online related courses.
"I met Jamie on several occasions. He was an exceptionally nice guy and a talented artist," wrote Brent Cox on his Web site. "One of his original artworks hangs on our living room wall."
Bishop’s parents, Michael and Jeri Bishop, still live in Pine Mountain. Michael Bishop wrote the Nebula Award-winning novel "No Enemy But Time" and the Mythopoeic Award-winning fantasy novel "Unicorn Mountain."
His career spans almost 40 years. Besides novels, he’s a prolific short story writer, poet and essayist, and is viewed as one of the science fiction field’s literary lights. His fiction has been reprinted in the Best American Short Stories anthology series.
Cox wrote that he has known Bishops’ parents for "what seems like forever. I am sad beyond words," he said. "And my feelings are nothing compared to those of Mike and Jeri, and all the other families who lost someone yesterday."
— Jay Conley
