ROBERT HAMILTON BISHOP, III

1916–1963

Bob Bishop died by his own hand on December 11, 1963. Those of us who had seen him only a few days previously had found him as cheerful and active as usual and had no premonition of the tragedy shortly to occur.

Bob was the grandson of Samuel Mather, Cleveland industrialist, and the great-grandson of Robert H. Bishop, the founder of Miami University. His late father, Dr. Robert H. Bishop, had been a director of University Hospitals in Cleveland. He graduated from Harvard College in 1938 and went on to Harvard Law School, subsequently serving as a Navy lieutenant in the Pacific Theater in World War II.

Following the war, he practiced law with a leading Cleveland law firm, but in 1954 with his cousin organized Musicarnival, a summer tent theater on the outskirts of Cleveland, the operation moving to Florida in the winter. This venture proved quite successful, and Bob became president of the national Musical Arena Theaters Association representing more than 20 summer musical theaters across the country. He was also on the board of the National Opera Association, other musical organizations, the Children’s Aid Society, and was a member of a number of clubs. In addition to his interest in music he was an expert horseman and frequently rode to hounds in both this country and abroad, his interest in this sport substantially replacing an earlier interest in mountaineering although he frequently attended annual meetings of The American Alpine Club and kept himself current in developments in the sport. He was slight of build and a rapid but careful climber on rock, as well as competent and comfortable on snow. As my only companion on a three-week climbing trip in the Canadian Rockies under extremely adverse weather conditions, I found him consistently enterprising and cheerful. There is no doubt that mountains contributed pleasure to his life.

John C. Oberlin