Dr. Billy Bishop

Dr. Billy Bishop, registrar and director of student services and records at UMMC from 1973-2000, died June 21. He was 80.

A native of Jackson, Bishop attended high school in Hazlehurst and received his B.A. in history in 1960 and his M.A. in history in 1963 from Mississippi State University before receiving his Ph.D. in educational administration and supervision with emphasis in higher education in 1974 from the University of Mississippi.

Barbara Westerfield, who succeeded Bishop as registrar at UMMC, called Bishop “a true professional.”

“He is credited with creating the official institutional comprehensive compilation and yearly updating of data relative to UMMC applicants, students and graduates,” Westerfield said. “That vital historical gathering of student data continues in this office today.

“He was a true mentor and friend. He set an extremely high bar, carrying out his duties with great integrity and accuracy, and I always measured what I did by that standard.”

Bishop also served as a classroom teacher at Greenville High School from 1960-63; an admissions counselor at Mississippi State University from 1963-64; a counselor at Bass Junior High School, Greenville, from 1964-66 and at Murrah High School, Jackson, from 1966-67; a vocational-technical counselor, registrar, director of student financial aid and part-time instructor in the history department at Mississippi Delta Junior College, Moorhead, from 1967-71; and a part-time assistant professor in the School of Nursing at UMMC from 1973-2000.

Funeral services were June 24 at First Baptist Church in Madison with interment at Parkway Memorial Cemetery.