Dr. Barry Bishop

Dr. Barry Bishop has died.  I first met him in August of 2009 when I had him as a professor for one of the library classes I took at University of Houston Clear Lake.  It was my first semester of grad school, and the class probably wasn't one to start with, but my friend Betty Moore was taking it, and I wanted to be in a class with her as I started this new venture in life.  He is the one responsible for this 23 things blog.  It was his "puppy" so to speak. I took a lot of notes in his class---he was full of good advice for being out in the "real world" of librarianship. I appreciated the practical-ness.  It wasn't a class full of information that I would never be able to do, it was about where to find information that was useful and helpful.  Towards mid-November, as a class, we were pretty lethargic in class.  He finally stopped to ask what was up with us.  We bemoaned about our jobs and how tired we were (it was a 7-10 PM class on Tuesday night, after all!).  He kind of just listened to us--didn't fuss at us or lecture us, just listened.  We got done with our discussion for the evening and he let us go.  I don't remember how we found out about his cancer returning.  I think he sent us all an email informing us, letting us know that the last couple of classes would be led by his colleague.  She would be grading our final presentations.   Our class and the Thursday night class (which Betty was also attending) were the last two classes he taught.  He retired from Spring Branch ISD and UHCL at the end of the spring semester.  There are librarians around here that still quote him, and do things "The Barry Way".  I wish I had had more of an opportunity to learn from him.  I thank him for getting me off on the right foot for getting my masters degree.  I completed it back in August.  Today I found out his memorial service was yesterday (Monday), and at the time of the service, I was in Clear Lake ordering my graduation cap, gown, hood, and announcements.  I don't know if I would call that ironic, but it is definitely interesting timing.

I read today that he was at peace knowing that he was going to be with Jesus, so I suppose we'll be reunited again someday.  Maybe I'll ask him why Betty and I got that .5 deduction on our mid-term project.